The Saga of the Set Back
by Void of No One
Summary: From a simple incident of being banished to the reality - our world - the heroes of the Maple World will soon discover the complex relationship between their world and ours. However, the Black Mage also has his own agenda with our world, and the heroes will soon also find that they are not quite alone in this isolated world.
1. Prologue

**THE FINAL STRUGGLE**

"Master, we've reported a full-frontal assault from the entrance of the temple. The Maple Forces have broken our barrier, they are now fighting our first wave of oblivion guardians!" a rather short being with a weird figure knelt and said.

On the throne, a large, hooded figure sat, an eerie aura besieging him. "Impressive, I'd have never expected them to break in so quickly…Arkarium, Hilla, Magnus, come forth!" the figure commanded.

The three of them hurried towards the Black Mage's throne and knelt. "Yes master?" they said in unison.

"Muster our forces and engage in a counter attack against them. Leave no survivors," the Black Mage coldly spoke, however commanding in tone.

"Right away!" The three commanders then scattered and each commanded their own army to launch a counter attack.

"If they do manage to get in, I will have what's in store for them," the Black Mage murmured, releasing an evil laughter afterwards.

* * *

"This is it, Empress," Neinheart turned to look at Cygnus. She had been nervous ever since embarking on this journey of possibly no return, but Neinheart could see that her confidence had grown quite significantly. The throne room in front of them looked majestic yet menacing at the same time. Around them, Knights, Adventurers and Resistances were busy fighting Specters, Wyverns, Monks and other minions. "It's now or never," he continued.

"Oh you can stand here to look all you want, I'm going in to teach him a lesson or two," Demon bellowed and busted into the room. "Me too!" Phantom said and followed.

"Let's waste no time," said Cygnus. The other thirteen agreed and followed in.

They entered to find Demon angrily staring at the Black Mage, who seemed cool and a tad too calm sitting on his throne.

"It's over now. We've taken out all your commanders. Your death will complete the circle," Demon said, and charged towards the Black Mage, dark bolts rippling from his mace. Unfortunately, an infinitely evil force started to well up around the Black Mage, so powerful yet seemingly insignificant that Demon's charge slowed down even though he charged with full force. The others, seeing Demon having trouble, started attacking as well. None of the attacks got past the barrier, leaving the Black Mage virtually unharmed. Yet the Black Mage did not react, still calmly sitting on his throne.

"Hehehe, Demon, oh Demon, always so naive, so ignorant…" the Black Mage chuckled as Demon was knocked back by the repelling force.

"Just die!" bellowed Demon as he charged again.

"Hahahaha, listen Demon, just give up. If you think numbers can defeat me, think again." Projectiles, bullets and arrows fired at him. Blades swung at him. Yet the Black Mage still sat there, still unfazed and unharmed.

"Demon, do you remember how I treat all those that used to betray me? Do you?" the Black Mage said in his cold voice, "Surprisingly I must say I admire your effort. You managed to gather our arch-nemeses to face me. Such brilliant work, I have never doubted myself when I made you my commander. Perhaps I should have ordered for your kin's death much, much more earlier."

The barrier repelled a few more projectiles and blocked a few more blades.

"I am a very merciful person, Demon. I remember all that you have done to me and for me. Therefore, I would offer a chance for you to redeem your honour. Serve me once again, Commander Demon, or face my eternal wrath."

Demon ignored his former master's words and rained dark energies on the barrier with hopes to find a loophole instead.

"Don't you remember the good times we had, Demon? We used to crush our enemies together, rendering them helpless, despaired and desperate. Don't you remember all these, Demon? And look at who you've brought along now, all with the same desperation to stop us yet helpless at the same time. Wouldn't it be better to see them twitch painfully below our feet, eager to die but unable to?"

The Black Mage suddenly waved his right arm. Thousands of dark chains struck down upon whoever stood before his throne, chaining all of them to the ground, except Demon who was stuck in a kneeling position instead.

"Just what do you want?" yelled Demon.

"Your powers are weak and impure. Your friends are weak and helpless. But over the years of being trapped in ice I have yet again unlocked another realm of immense power, and I am willing to share it with you, Demon. Come back to me, and we shall walk the true path to ultimate power together," the Black Mage replied.

Demon opened his mouth again but no words came out this time. He felt angry, but at the same time like the Black Mage put it, helpless.

"Too hard to decide? I shall make it easier for you," said the Black Mage.

He raised his left arm. A void formed at the floor, sending the throne room into seizures. At the flick of his hand, the void started to glow and twirl, trapping everyone in a whirlpool, except Demon. At that instant, Demon felt the power and energy around him so strong, so infinite, yet strangely so friendly.

But as the void seemed ever so ready to swallow all the lesser beings, it collapsed to form a rift with a brilliant blue colour, power radiating from within. The cooling sensation Demon felt was no more, but a force so overwhelming that if the bindings on Demon were not strong enough, he too would have been swallowed.

Then came a strong outpour of light that blinded Demon. As he fought to persevere through power of such intensity, he could faintly hear the words of his former master. It was the first time Demon felt a hint of surprise from the Black Mage's words.

'No! This is not supposed to be happening! This cannot happen!'


	2. Chapter 1

**BANISHED, WHERE TO?**

"Urgh, what happened…" Aran felt a slight disgust in his stomach, and his head was still dizzily spinning. Something stung badly. When he felt more conscious, he realised he was lying on a rather soft, pelt-like ground. He could smell the fresh earth in the air. Slowly but eventually, Aran could feel his arms again. As he tried to move them, his arms came across what felt like several stalks of grass, and rustling sounds could be heard. He slowly opened his eyes, but quickly shut it again due to the bright light.

His eyes gradually got used to the light and he made a second attempt. He managed to sit up and looked around. Clear rainforest. Trees around him told him that he's possibly in the middle of nowhere. It seemed like he was back in Ellinia. Or was it Leafre?

Then he remembered. The chaos during their fight with the Black Mage. All the spectres, skeletons, wyverns and monks he had fought. How they were all so close to eliminating their one common enemy. That moment when he felt a stinging headache and all went black. The only thing he wanted to know then was what had happened when he was unconscious, where he was now, and where the others were. As far as his memory allowed, he recalled quite a few others being brought under the Black Mage's spell besides him. At least it was a relief that his memory was not completely wiped out like previously.

He looked around and tried to find his pole arm. It was just by his side, albeit looking blunt. Maha must have been inside blaming him again. He tried to commune with his pole arm with hopes of finding him, but to no avail. He hadn't followed Aranelle instead, had he? he thought.

He tried to lift his pole arm. Strange, his pole arm seemed to feel ten times heavier. Perhaps he was still feeling weak, he thought.

"Hello? Anybody there?" a voice bellowed in a distance. Aran recognised this voice.

"Aranelle?" Aran yelled.

He quickly stood up and tried to get to her. The pole arm was weighing him down, though, and he couldn't help walking a tad too slow. He tried to dash forward a small distance as he used to back then, probably that would have shortened the time, but for some reason his body refused to cooperate.

"Aran, where are you?" he heard Aranelle calling out. Without hesitating any longer, he carried his pole arm on his shoulders and moved towards the direction of the voice. The atmosphere around him was eerily silent except for his footsteps which made the ground rustle.

"Coming, Aranelle!" Aran shouted as he moved on. He was starting to wear out with the heavy pole arm on him. Nevertheless, he continued heading for Aranelle. Suddenly, Aran bumped into something ahead of him and he collapsed. His pole arm slopped from his back and landed with a thump.

Or was it someone? "Ow…" a voice sounded ahead, but it was not Aranelle.

"Mercedes?" asked Aran as he looked up in front, bewildered. Indeed, in front of him was a beautiful girl with pointy ears and long hair, hands caressing her head. Her bowguns sat at both her sides.

"Aran, you're here too?" Mercedes looked stunned as she set her eyes on Aran. "Where are we? Where're the others?"

"No idea," replied Aran. "Aranelle should be somewhere nearby, though."

Just then, they heard leaves rustling behind Mercedes. Not long after, a girl with white hair and long pony tail appeared. When she saw Aran, she dropped her pole arm, ran towards him and threw her arms around his neck.

"Araaaaaaaaaaaannn!" said Aranelle, excitedly.

"Hack…cough…wheeze…I…can't…breathe…"Aran choked.

"Sorry!" Aranelle said as she released her death grip. "You had me worried so much, I thought I'm gonna lose you! Oh, you're here too Dee," she said as she saw Mercedes, to which she replied, "Stop calling me Dee, gee*z!"

"Aranelle, is Maha with you? I couldn't reach him so I thought he's with you," asked Aran.

"I couldn't reach him either," said Aranelle, leaving Aran all the more confused.

"That's not the problem now, guys!" said Mercedes, feeling impatient, "We're in the middle of nowhere! We have to find the others too!"

At that moment, Aran and Aranelle became aware of their surroundings again. A seemingly endless rainforest stood around them, with sunlight illuminating through the leaves.

"Help!" another voice broke the silence.

"Someone's in trouble!" said Aran as he picked up his pole arm and headed off towards the voice. The others retrieved their own weapons and followed. As they went, they could hear the sound of gushing water, louder the more they went. Eventually, they arrived at what seemed like a stream near a waterfall, so high that none of these they knew had such great heights.

Aside, they saw someone struggling on the surface of the stream as though close to drowning. Nearby, another swam towards her, albeit greatly slowed by the somewhat strong current. Eventually, the swimmer grabbed the drowning person by the waist and swam to Aran's direction ashore. Without hesitating, they put down their weapons and went for the side of the stream as both of them reached the shore and helped them up as they slowly crawled.

"I got you, Empress," said the swimmer as both got up.

"Kyrin, Empress, are you okay?" Mercedes asked.

"Never better," Kyrin replied, a smile on her face. Cygnus, however, was too exhausted to reply, and could hardly do anything other than panting hard.

"What happened?" asked Aranelle.

"Empress fell into the water just now. I was just walking by when I heard her," Kyrin answered. "Been long since I last met with such strong currents. Feels good to swim against it!"

"Thanks, Kyrin, and please, just call me Cygnus," Cygnus managed to speak up.

"By the way, since you guys are here too, any idea where we are?" asked Kyrin.

"If only we know," Aranelle answered cynically.

Kyrin stood up and looked around. "If there's a stream here, we'd reach civilisation if we walk along it."

"That's what I was trying to do," said Cygnus.

The five of them wasted no time. After picking up their own weapons, they headed away from the waterfall.

"Are we still in the Maple World? For some reason I can't use my magic here," Cygnus asked.

"We don't know, Cygnus. We have to find the locals to find it out," said Aran.

They silently walked on. The way was almost clear, without any beasts that normally lurked in the jungle, but the temperature was unusually hot. They had lots of rests mainly due to Aran and Aranelle's abnormally heavy pole arms. Cygnus took off her adornments and bracelets which held her outer gown to feel more comfortable. She wrapped them together within the gown and held onto them instead. They quenched their thirsts with the flowing water and eased their hunger with wild fruits and berries. They did chat, but there wasn't much to chat about other than their last battle and the abnormality of their surroundings.

The stream enlarged into a river as they went on, yet the rainforest did not seem to end. The river, however, cleared the sky of trees and leaves. Suddenly, they spotted smoke rising to the air in front of them. A hint of smell of burnt wood further caught their attention, and they quickened their paces with hopes to find any signs of intelligent being.

They walked on to find that the smoke - and the smell - came from a bonfire. Either that, or someone was burning old branches and dried leaves. There was an old man standing beside the fire, one hand holding a wooden stick. Aran put down his pole arm and went to approach him.

"Excuse me," Aran said to the old man.

The old man did not react. Instead, he turned away, called out something he couldn't understand, and turned back to the burning wood. A few moments later, a younger man appeared. He came to Aran as soon as he saw them.

"How can I help you?" asked the young man.

"May I know where we are? My friends and I got lost in the woods so we followed the river to see where it leads to."

The young man looked around him and said, "We are at Gopeng now. This river is Sungai Kampar. Only my father" he pointed to the old man, "lives here. Where are you guys from?"

Aran had no idea of the land they were at and felt best not to leak out too much information in such an unfamiliar place. He tried to change the topic. "It's not important. We were actually lost for days in there so perhaps we need some time to familiarise, then we can return to our places."

The young man spoke to the old man again. The old man nodded and smiled, seeming to give his approval. The young man turned back towards Aran and said, "You can stay here if you want. I would prepare you and your friends for the night. Father said he could always use some company."

The five of them followed the young man inland, chatting as they did. After ten minutes of walking, they came to a wooden house almost the size of four mushroom houses of Henesys, old but still sturdy.

"Pardon this place," said the young man as they stepped in the house, "it's a little old and messy but this is all we got. Father built this house before I was even born."

He showed them around, pointing the bathroom, living room, kitchen and bedrooms out. At last, he led them to an empty bedroom, seemingly the biggest in the house. "It's alright, my father and I could sleep in the other one," the young man said.

He left the bedroom to them, but before he took the third step, he turned back.

"You're…I'm sorry I didn't know your names," said the young man.

Aran turned to look at the girls. When Cygnus gave a slight nod and smile, Aran turned to the young man and said, "I'm Aran, and this is…" he introduced him to them one by one.

"I'm Soro, nice meeting you guys," he shook Aran's hand. "You can stay here as long as you want, but just don't bring down the house. By the way, I will be headed back to KL soon so if you guys wanna come with me back to my house instead let me know. And if you guys need some clothes you could borrow some of mine or my father's, I'm sure they'll fit your sizes."

Soro left, leaving the five of them in the bedroom to sort themselves out.

Aranelle suddenly frowned. Mercedes turned to look at her. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"There's something strange about him. He seems a little too excited," replied Aranelle.

"He knew, and he didn't even question our lack of backpacks," said Kyrin.

"Or our weapons, or outfits," said Aran.

"You guys able to use your powers?" asked Cygnus.

The rest tried a simple buff each, but for some reason nothing happened at all. "Nah," they all replied.

"Strange…was it the void, or was it this world that made us lose our powers?" asked Cygnus again.

Mercedes looked out of the windowsill, trying to study the environment. "We are in Malaysia," she finally concluded.

"What?" the rest replied, shocked.

"How do you know?" asked Aran.

"There's only one place with forest and yet the weather's still this hot," Aranelle answered, trying to fan herself with her palm.

"It could be so, but it's definitely not the Malaysia we know of," said Mercedes, referring to the metropolis, muddy villages and the theme park filled with insane mascots.

* * *

As Soro walked out of the house, he thought he struck gold. At first, he thought that they were pro cosplayers and almost shook it off, but further thoughts led him to suspect that they might actually be the real deal.

In that sense, their names were strange and perfectly matched too. But of course, anyone playing MapleStory knew about them all too well.


	3. Chapter 2

**HERE... ALONE?**

Kyle and Tear walked along the street. The moon brilliantly shone in the sky, however failing to outshine the lights that adorned their paths. They silently admired the scenic view, watching endless streams of cars as series of honks, engines and chats sounded in the air. The night was abnormally cold, and Tear could not help shivering a little. Most people on the streets had on their jackets and long pants that covered most of their skin, and their not-so-ordinary outfit caught the attention of many passers-by.

They had awoken somewhere among a dark alleyway. While Kyle had already transformed back to his Nova form, Tear still retained her pink twintails and Angelic Buster suit. Kyle couldn't find his swords anywhere, but Tear still had her soul shooter and bracelet which, for some reason, seemed to be looser than it should be - Tear dared not shed them nevertheless. With some discussions, they decided it was best to look around with hopes to find hints of their whereabouts first. Tear tried to reach Eskalade but he did not respond.

They headed down the street, trying to study the culture of the place. Oddly, they recognised most inscriptions written on billboards, shops and the large televisions there. They are the writings of the local language in Pantheon, consisting largely of lines and circles. Even the grammar matched too, with all the subject-verb agreement in the right place. Besides, the language other people around them spoke seemed to bear little difference with Phanteose too.

One large advertisement board caught their attention. Their eyes were set upon a few significant words. "Drive safely to celebrate with your valentine. A message from the Korean Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport."

Aside from that, something in the atmosphere beckoned to them.

"It's so beautiful!" Tear said, out of the blue.

"Sure is," said Kyle.

"I wish Velderoth's here too," Tear sighed.

Kyle spoke nothing, and Tear knew why. The three of them had been best of friends throughout childhood and teenage. Things started to turn when Kyle inherited the Kaiser and Eskalade dawned upon Tear. The shock of Velderoth's betrayal had yet to subside within him, and his guilt remained ever since ending him, even as he and Tear were compelled to.

"Are you still mad at me?" Tear softly asked, after a long, awkward silence. She had to confirm. Kyle's probably still mad at her hiding her true identity, turning Velderoth against them. It was not until the fight with Velderoth that Kyle knew the Angelic Buster was Tear all along. Velderoth sold her out, claiming he witnessed the transformation.

"For what?" Kyle asked, surprised.

"Well, you already know who I am, so…"

"Oh, silly. You never change even after you've become an idol, eh?" Kyle chuckled. "Of course I'm not. It's not even the time to think about that. I mean, look at where we are now, shouldn't we be worrying about this first?"

Tear looked down in embarrassment and kept herself silent.

"Hey bud, we did great back there at least," said Kyle, trying to cheer his friend up. "By the way, are we…all alone here? I'm pretty sure we are not the only ones."

"I…I think so." Tear had never felt so speechless before.

They walked on. As they silently admired the vibrant nightlife of the radiant city, they couldn't help notice one common thing. Every single shop or banner or billboard has the words "Valentines Day" or at least a word "valentine" on them. Also, the lamp posts of this world were all decorated with colourful ribbons and lightings.

Besides, there seemed to be only couples on the streets. They were either holding hands while walking or making out in public. Lovey-dovey, in general. They had never seen such phenomenon back at Pantheon.

They came to a junction where they had to cross the road to head on. Oddly, cars stopped in a rather neat position. Pedestrians hurried across the road where white stripes were marked. At the other side of the road stood a few poles. At the top of them were queer containers of some sort. A green blinking light in the shape of a running man seemed to shine towards them from within one of them, the smaller one of all. Kyle and Tear followed and strolled across, still admiring their surroundings. Before long, the green light stopped flashing and from the container shone a red light in the shape of a man in standing posture instead. Pedestrians started running towards both sides of the road, leaving them wondering why the people suddenly ran from walking.

Then they knew. They were the only ones still left on the street. All went into chaos. Swarms of cars started to rush towards them. They wasted no time trying to run to the side of the road. Kyle managed to reach the side, but Tear was a bit slower.

"Look out!" Kyle yelled as he jerked on Tear's forearm, making her land directly into his arms. A car zoomed behind, narrowly missing her.

"You okay?" asked Kyle.

"Yeah…"

"Are you sure? Your face looks flushed."

Indeed, in the split second Kyle pulled her, her face had turned beet red. "Yeah…I'm…I'm okay…"

"Alright, just tell me if you don't feel well, I don't know what I can do here but I'll do my best," said Kyle, laughing. Tear awkwardly laughed along.

The decorations and promotions in lieu of Valentines Day did not seem to end, and so they continued their sightseeing in awe, temporarily forgetting that they were in a foreign land and enjoying what they saw. As they went on, they noticed a man with a beard in a fancy clothing and a bowler hat. He was smoking a cigar in his mouth while leaning against the wall, and seemed to be waiting for someone.

"Oi you, you there," the man called out in Phantheose as they walked near. Kyle and Tear turned their heads towards him in bewilderment. "You, yeah you, get over here for a moment wouldn't you," the man spoke again. His tone was rather lively and cheerful, and he always smiled when he spoke.

Curious, Kyle and Tear approached the man. He greeted Kyle with a smile.

"Hey young man, I see you are in need of a valentine for this coming Valentines Day! Now what is your name?"

Confused this time, Kyle replied, "Uhh…I'm Kyle, my friend here's Tear…"

"Ah Kyle-ssi!" the man interrupted, before Kyle could finish, "So you do need a valentine! My name is Yoo Saeg-Laeng, but you could just address me as Saeg-Laeng-hyung. Now I just have the perfect valentine for you to happily celebrate this loving season together! I would just need your approval and we shall all be ready to experience the love in the air!"

Kyle looked at Tear, who looked down. He shrugged, not knowing whether to accept or not. They did not really know how things worked in this world so he could be of help, but it was very embarrassing at the same time.

"Aih why wait for approval of course you need a valentine! Please wait for me while I call her," the man took out a strange gadget from a pocket, flicked a few times with his finger while looking at it and then held it to his right ear.

"Hello."

"Wait what?!"

"What? Whaddya mean you can't come?"

"Oh you better arrange for it tomorrow!"

All the time Kyle and Tear stared blankly as Saeg-Laeng seemed to talk to himself while having that thing at his ear, utterly confused.

"Okay, bye," the man finally said before he brought the thing down, flicked a few more times and kept it back into his pocket.

"I am very sorry, Kyle-ssi. But you can still enjoy this moment together tomorrow onwards, since Valentines Day's still 'round the corner. But no worries, I have Plan B at hand!" the man returned to a smile. "Please follow me."

Kyle and Tear blindly followed. After a long walk, they came to a rather grand hotel in the city.

"Two rooms for the night," Saeg-Laeng told the receptionist as they approached the reception. After a few moments, he returned to Kyle and Tear, two cards in his hands.

"These are your rooms for you and your friend," he said as he handed one for Kyle, and another for Tear. "I have told them to arrange a formal suit for you, Kyle-ssi. So I will be seeing you at 9am, and we shall all have a wonderful time feeling all the atmosphere of love! In fact, your room is saved for you and your valentine too, Kyle-ssi!" Saeg-Laeng said before he left, humming pleasantly all the way and leaving the two of them in the lobby.

* * *

Tear reached her room, staring at the door. Kyle taught her how to use the lift - he had been on lifts back at the Maple World and knew how to operate them, thankfully it worked the same way here - but not how to open the door. She looked from the rather strange 'lock' to her card then back to the lock again. The 'lock' had no slots to insert the card to, and Tear was baffled. She managed to seek help from a passing janitor. He opened the door in a way that fascinated her - he tapped the card at the smooth surface of the 'lock', a green light flashed, and he pushed the door open. She thanked the janitor and walked in.

Her room had a single bed and bathroom, and it seemed like the simplest room of all types. Very well then, she thought, everything else in the room was fancy at least.

She plopped down on her bed, feeling cold and exhausted from the day, albeit having the heater warming up the room nicely. Her mind wandered to what happened that day. They were neither in Pantheon or the Maple World, but in some place called Korea, somewhere in the alternate universe, which seemed to use Pantheose as the main language. They met strange things, it was Valentines, and Kyle's getting a date.

Kyle's getting a date.

She tossed and turned, thinking about it over and over. She knew she should be happy, but most of her wasn't. She didn't want to know why. Part of her was angry - and jealous - at Kyle being convinced and accepting the date so easily.

At last, she decided to find Kyle. Perhaps it might ease her fluttering heart a little bit.

She took the lift and went to Kyle's room. For a very long time, she felt too nervous to knock, as she didn't have the confidence, which in turn made her lose her words. At last, the door opened by itself, and out came Kyle.

"Tear?" Kyle asked, surprised. "How long have you been standing here? Come in!"

Tear followed as they walked in together. Tear was surprised at Kyle's room. It was a grand suite that not only had a bedroom with a king-size bed, but a kitchen, a living room and a study as well. The lights that shone dimly onto the room added to the atmosphere of pure grandeur, and even a faint smell of lavender could be picked up. It looked as though they're back at the main temple of Pantheon.

"You got this kind of room? What the…" Tear started to pout.

"Hey, I never expect it to be this fancy. Is that how inns work here?"

"You should have looked at my room, then you'll know!" Tear answered, to which Kyle took as a 'no'.

"By the way, you came at the right time. I was just about to head to your room to tell you something."

"What is it?" asked Tear.

"The man that put us here, Saeg-Laeng-hyung is it? Haven't you noticed something strange about him?"

Tear hesitated for a while, then spoke, "Now that I remembered, he looked kinda familiar. Have we met him before somewhere in Pantheon?"

"I'm not sure," said Kyle. "By the way, I kinda feel nervous for tomorrow. First step in here and now out for a date, how's that sound?"

"I don't know…" Tear suddenly blushed again.

"Oh yeah, since I'm getting a date tomorrow, how d'ya think I should approach her? I mean, what do girls like in general? Could you gimme some tips?"

For a good one hour, Tear gave Kyle a lot of tips on the valentine date. She somehow managed to hide her jealousy well.

"Thanks for everything, I knew you'd be reliable!" said Kyle as Tear prepared to leave, "And wish me luck too. By any chance after this it'll be all over and we'll be back at Pantheon."

Just as Tear opened the door, she looked back to Kyle. "Alright well, good luck," she said. Just before she closed the door, she spoke again, "Just, don't phase me out."

She went back to her room and flung herself onto bed. Tears started leaking through her eyes.


	4. Chapter 3

**GAME CHARACTERS? US?!**

They had entered the hall. There had been lots of people like them. It felt like they're in a place where they should belong.

Or was it?

Phantom, Luminous and Checky tried to walk through the crowd, deciding to look around. Around them were many warriors, assassins, royalties and especially battlefield idols alike. They had different kinds of looks and wielded all kinds of weapons, many of them unfamiliar to the Maple World. Besides that, there were lots more who were dressed in other kinds of costumes such as school uniforms, singers, actors and many, many more.

"I get it," said Checky, out of the blue. "Look there!" He pointed towards the large banner which stood amongst the crowd. On it were colourful patterns and especially significant words "AFA'13".

"What is it?" asked Phantom.

"It's the Anime Festival of Asia," said Checky.

"Mmhm, so what?"

"No wonder everyone's dressed like this here. We should fit in."

"But isn't this…" Luminous tried to ask, but Checky interrupted.

"Nope, it's not considered normal in this world. I know it is in our world, but it shouldn't be in here. The only place where outfits like those are normal is in a place like this. Not to mention…" he pointed towards his bear-head. Phantom and Luminous nodded in agreement. They had woken up in an alleyway and - after vain attempts of conjuring spells - had noticed that things are somewhat different in this world they are in when they were out on the streets.

Checky looked around, hesitated, and finally said, "Okay, I know where we should be in our clothes. Follow me."

They crossed through the crowd, who were just minding their own business and taking photos. Soon, they reached a place where people seemed to be more familiar to them. Words of "MapleStory" caught their attention.

"Mercedes?" asked Phantom, as he turned to see a girl dressed in the elven queen outfit and wielding dual bowguns. He tried to approach her.

"Hush," said Checky, pulling Phantom back. "She is not Mercedes. Just look around you."

Phantom turned around. Surprisingly, there were many who were dressed in the similar elven queen outfit. Besides that, there were also a lot of Cygnuses, Lady-Syls, Claudines, Athena-Pierces, Arans, Evans, Rhinnes, Alices, Xenons, and a lot more - heck, even mascots of monsters they have been hunting in the past were there too. Even Phantoms and Luminouses were there as well. Knowing all of them fairly well, Phantom and Luminous realised none of them were the real ones.

"Hey, it's a Checky here!" an Evan called out. Instantly, people started to crowd around them. "He brought along a Phantom and a Luminous too!" a Xenon cried out. Now that Phantom and Luminous remembered, there seemed to be no Checkys in that area. But that was not the issue now. Sparks flashed as numerous people took pictures of them.

"Whoa! These few are experts!"

"Hey Checky, is it really hot under that bear-head?"

"Hey Checky, mind if we see how you look like in person?"

"Hey Phantom, I bet you are pro in card tricks just like the real one!"

"Hey guys, mind if you guys pose for my picture?"

On and on people pestered them. They were starting to become impatient. Phantom was about to yell them off when suddenly a girl stood out.

"Hey, that's it, knock it off guys!" she said. "Stop troubling them, will you?" The crowd subsided as quick as it formed, some apologising to her.

"I'm sorry, mister, but there are always people like them annoying people around. Well, hope you enjoy your stay here." The girl prepared to leave but Checky stopped her.

"Nami? Is that you?" he asked.

"Wait, this sound…Checky?" replied the girl.

"Holy crab, Nami, how are you my friend?" Checky and Nami proceeded with a friend hug. Phantom and Luminous admired Nami for a while. She was dressed in a character that few in the Maple World knew, but they knew that this character was one of the first explorers of the world - the first archer besides Athena Pierce, in fact - and she seemed like the only character here. There were none other who was dressed like her. Her short twintail, blue mushroom hairpin, simple archer outfit, sneakers and simple bow and arrow, are the symbols of the beginning of a new age in the Maple World after the Black Mage was sealed, alongside the first warrior, rogue and magician, as well as the beginner.

Mostly still, Phantom and Luminous were confused as to why Checky had a friend in this world.

"Checky, I missed you so much, what brings you here?" said Nami after breaking the hug.

"Long story, Nami. Never intended to step in to this world again after going back. I'll tell you later, but not now. By the way, I've brought along a few friends so you think you can somehow accommodate us for the while?"

"Sure. I've been feeling alone very frequently," said Nami. As she turned her head, she saw Phantom and Luminous and gasped, "Oh my god, are they…"

"Yea yea please now could you get us somewhere else? I'm starting to feel uneasy here."

"Alright then, I don't feel like staying here anyways. Follow me."

They followed Nami out of the hall and to a parking lot. A few minutes later they were sitting comfortably in Nami's car enjoying themselves with the air-conditioner. The car barely moved as they were stuck in a congestion, not unusual at this hour according to Nami.

"Is it still that hot in here?" said Checky as he - finally - removed his bear-head. Phantom and Luminous marvelled at how handsome Checky actually is, and wondered why Checky kept the mascot suit on all the time even if he was on his mech fighting monsters.

"Temperature hardly changes here, I thought you knew, Checky," said Nami, "and how did you guys end up here? I mean, if Phantom and Luminous are real, that is."

Checky, who was seated at the front seat, turned back towards Phantom and Luminous and said, "You tell him, Luminous. Just to prove your identity."

"Okay," Luminous took a deep breath, and proceeded, "Well, we finally decided that we would take down the Black Mage once and for all, so the lot of us, and by that I mean literally everyone, stormed the Time Temple to fight him. We cleared his minions quite easily."

Luminous hesitated before continuing, "Well, we got before the Black Mage. We tried to attack, but nothing penetrated his barrier. I'm still kinda surprised why he talked only to Demon all the time. Anyway, a few moments later we were all chained to the ground, and the next thing I know, I ended up here with Checky and Phantom."

Nami tried to imagine the scenario despite being simply put. "Wow, that must have been one hell of a fight, eh?"

"Actually, it was over well sooner than I thought," said Phantom. "Where are we, anyways?"

"We are no longer in the Maple World, that is for sure. Welcome to Singapore, fellas," said Checky.

"Singapore?" asked Luminous, surprised, "Then we are still back in the Maple World! I mean, this is Central Way, right? I know it's used to be called CBD."

Nami giggled a little, then said, "Nope, we are not in the Singapore full of disgusting black gooey mobs carrying stop signs, speed-limit signs, fire extinguishers or driving mini-trucks. Just in case you noticed these things don't exist here. If you still don't believe me, I can take you to Boat Quay and you can try finding some ways that can take you to KL, Malaysia in less than 10 seconds."

"Nah, save your trouble, I believe in you now."

"So how's it going since I left, Nami?" asked Checky.

"Just so-so. A few days after you've returned they finally released Mechanic in the game, as you said you would train a few more mechanics for the Resistance. That was a few years ago, though. They hardly appear now."

"I reckoned you'd say that. Hardly anyone wants to become a mechanic. Heck, I thought mechs and bots are supposed to be more interesting than blade, arrows or magic! Guess I'm wrong. Part of it's due to all the mechs being unable to function properly and show its full potential."

Nami gave a slight chuckle, "No wonder I see Mechanics being nerfed so badly only after a few months."

"So you still playing this game?"

"Yea, I made a few more characters. I'm now training a Luminous."

"Well, you still showed up in AFA, and dressed as an archer too."

"Oh come on, I never intended to go in the first place. My friends dragged me there and insisted I cosplay this character! Man I would have cosplayed a female Luminous instead if I wanna go. I would still be back at that stupid place if you guys weren't there to bail me out." Nami and Checky laughed to that.

Phantom and Luminous listened in awe. They hardly knew what those two were talking about, yet something told them that some big secret was being hidden from them - and everyone else. Phantom decided to seek clarification.

"Hey Checky, what are you guys talking about?"

Feeling a bit nervous, Checky decided not to hide anymore nevertheless, "You guys never knew? You, me, Luminous, the whole Maple World, we are all part of a game! An online multiplayer game, that is."

Phantom and Luminous were shocked. All the while fighting with the Black Mage twice, hunting monsters, staging a comeback, they were all just part of a game?

"But, it can't be! I mean, everything in our world, I swear it is real！"

"Well, you're gonna accept this truth, guys. It is quite a popular game too," said Nami. Phantom and Luminous finally knew why there were so many characters back at the hall.

The car eventually stopped as it parked in a parking lot. Around them were many blocks of buildings. They followed Nami into one of the blocks and up the lift. Soon, they came to one of the households where Nami unlocked the door.

"Well guys, welcome to my apartment," said Nami as she led them round the rooms. It was quite small and simple, fit for one person to live.

"…and there is your room. You guys might have to squeeze a little," said Nami, showing them the largest bedroom of the household.

Phantom, Checky and Luminous looked at the room. It had only one single bed and the floor can barely fit two people. There was a wardrobe in that room that took almost one quarter of the bedroom's space.

"Well Nami, I guess we can live," said Checky.

* * *

Phantom, Luminous and Checky took turns taking baths. When they opened the wardrobe with hopes to find some clothes, they only found clothes fit for women. Hence, they went back to wearing their own clothes.

As they went out of the room, they found Nami sitting in front of the computer. She turned around as she heard them coming over.

"So, this your character?" asked Checky as he pulled a chair and sat beside her.

"Yeah…but it's not the Luminous I talked about. I can't find her in my list of characters, in fact. This is my other Dual Blade character which I haven't played since my Luminous," said Nami, "by the way, something strange is happening."

"What is it?"

"At first I thought my account was hacked and my Luminous's deleted. But it seems like the game is losing some things. I couldn't see any of the characters that are usually seen around. Phantom, Luminous, Aran, Mercedes, none of them. They usually are here all the time."

"What is this game called?" asked Phantom, trying to study the game.

"MapleStory," Nami answered. "Argh damm'it, doesn't seem like there's people who wanna PQ...oh, there's one inviting me."

"Interesting, everything seemed the same to what we see and do every day in our world."

Luminous heard of the chronicles of the MapleStory before. It retells the stories that occurred in the Maple World. It told of the five legends' backgrounds, how the first battle with the Black Mage went, how the Explorers, the Knights of Cygnus, the Resistances came into being, the Big Bang, the comeback of Empress Cygnus, and everything significant.

"Hmm, some of the NPCs are missing too!" said Nami. "My buddies said that they can't find Cygnus, Neinheart, Claudine, Kyrin, Athena Pierce at their usual spots either. You're in the list too, Checky."

Nami quitted the game and surfed the game's forums. She wanted to make sure if other players were experiencing this problem too. As she opened the General Discussion section, she found that threads complaining of the loss of these characters were flooding the first page. "Strange, it is not only me facing this problem."

Checky thought for a moment. "Hmm, I think these characters are gone from the game because…"

"We are here in this world!" Phantom interrupted.

"That's it! Nami, could you do me a favour?" asked Checky again.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Could you list all of the character classes and NPCs that are gone from the game? If you could, perhaps we can know who are the ones teleported to this world along with us!"

Nami hesitated for a moment, then said, "It may be a lot of trouble, but I will do it."


	5. Chapter 4

**IT EXISTS NOT?**

"This environment…are we at Zipangu?" asked Irena.

"It seems so. I recognise the difference between the culture. Especially that," said Neinheart, pointing towards the gate. The top part of it was slightly arched upwards at both ends. "That is a _torii_. It's the gate for the Zipangese shrine. It means we should be somewhere in Zipangu. No big deal going back to our places."

"I don't think so, Neinheart," said Claudine. "Don't you notice something strange about this?"

"What is it?" asked Neinheart.

"For one, this _torii_ you mentioned, it's not red in colour, like the one in Zipangu. Two, there are usually food stalls - and a TV - near the shrine. I see none of them here now." Indeed, aside from a walkway that led to the torii, there was nothing else apart from sakura trees, grasses, and other greenery. Not even a hint of the smell of takoyaki could be picked up.

"I am still not convinced. How about we go in instead to find out?" said Neinheart with a slight disbelief. He had to admit Claudine's words were true, though.

"I thought so too. Let's go."

* * *

Ruriko came to the shrine in her green hakama carrying a feather duster, a broom and a dustpan. She would do what she usually did: cleaning the shrine. She was currently studying in university in town, alert to the current affairs even though she lived far from civilisation. Her house had everything an ordinary family in Japan would have in its house. Telecommunication signals were surprisingly well for her location.

She cleaned the main hall and came to a hallway. It was a long hallway, and larger than the shrine itself. On the walls were numerous gaps neatly arranged. Stone tablets of past ancestors of the Inoue family fitted perfectly into the gaps. It was built as an extension to the shrine for the purpose of keeping these stone tablets. Ruriko dusted the wall and the stone tablets as well as sweeping the floor full of dust and fallen leaves. When she came to the place which held the stone tablets of her parents, she knelt down, palm-to-palm, praying for herself, her family, the village she was in, and the shrine. Her parents died together two years ago.

The village Ruriko lived in had itself almost no outsiders throughout the centuries as the way up to the village was quite a steep and long way. The walkway was built centuries ago by her ancestors, and stairs were added sometime later after that. The only outsiders the village had were the workers who carried the furnitures and machines to the house. They didn't quite like it due to the heavy load weighing them down and, added to the steep and long way, consuming a lot of their energies. Most of them already huffed and puffed when they hadn't even reached halfway to the village. A lot complained and a lot more suggested the family to move to urban areas but Ruriko's family chose not to. There was a garage and a mailbox built at the junction of the road and the walkway. Other than the workers, there were absolutely no visitors coming to the village at all. Not even the little kids who were friends with the family members when they were very young.

Hence, Ruriko was quite surprised when she thought she heard footsteps coming towards the main hall from the torii.

"Hello, anybody here?" It surprised Ruriko even more as the voice was in English instead of Japanese. Nevertheless, being a university literate, Ruriko excelled at English just as well as her other subjects.

She decided to put down her things and head towards the hall only to find five people in weird clothes looking around. Strangest of all, Ruriko seemed to have known them somewhere.

* * *

"Hello, anybody here?" Athena's voice echoed throughout the great hall. At the central of the hall was a large statue, seemingly of a famous Zipangese warrior. Above it hung a tablet bearing words in Zipangese. Before the statue, a long cushion was placed there. 'For kneeling,' thought Athena.

The five continued to look around at the grand interior of the shrine. The structure looked very old yet well maintained, decorated in the traditional Zipangese way. Before long, a shrine maiden dressed in green appeared from behind the large tablet.

Athena spoke up before the shrine maiden could say anything. "Hello there, my friends and I are kinda lost around here. Is this the Kinoko Shrine?" She referred to the shrine back in Zipangu.

"Uh, I've never heard of that shrine before. I'm Ruriko Inoue, and this is the Heian Yamagawa Shrine. You must have gotten the wrong way," said the shrine maiden.

Athena looked from Neinheart, to Xenon, to Irena, then to Claudine. All of them shook their heads in a confused manner.

"Where is this shrine you're speaking of, by the way? I may be able to help you find it," the shrine maiden offered.

At this moment, all five of them knew something was wrong with their location. In the whole of Maple World, the only Zipangese shrine was the Kinoko shrine, which honours the mushrooms commonly seen in Zipangu. Athena didn't know if the girl was faking them, so she decided to play along for a while.

"It is in Zipangu. Do you know the place?"

The girl shook her head. "I've never heard of it. Zipangu…it does not even exist, I think."

"WHAT?!" everyone instantly yelled, shocked at her answer.

* * *

The mention of Zipangu by the older archer instantly shed light on the identities of the visitors for Ruriko. Even now, she was still playing the popular online game in Japan. Zipangu was the name of a location in the game which bore a rich Japanese culture. At that sudden reminder, she instantly recognised everyone, except the younger archer.

They were much more mature-looking than how they were portrayed in-game, though. Probably because their heads were not bigger than their bodies like how she usually remembered.

As such, Ruriko was not completely surprised of their reaction when she told them the truth. She was confused. Are they speaking the truth, or are they merely faking themselves?

"I know who you guys are," said Ruriko. She started calling the names of her guests while pointing to them in order, much to their surprise. Even though Ruriko could not tell the name of the younger archer, it was still sufficient in amazing them - or rather, arousing their suspicion - of her knowledge.

"I can't tell if you're real or not, unless you can prove yourself. Lots of crimes and hoax lately, you know," said Ruriko.

Athena tried to speak, but Xenon stopped her. Without a word, Xenon took off his shirt. In place where the torso should be were rectangular gadgets with numerous glowing lines instead. His cylindrical arms seemed to be fixed onto his body too. Ruriko was taken by surprise because Xenon's actions were human-like instead of programmed. They had to be real.

"If you guys are real, how did you end up here?" she asked.

Neinheart explained everything that had happened. They did not happen in the game, apparently, so Ruriko figured something else must have occurred in the game world.

"Why is it only the five of you? Where are the others?" she asked.

"We don't know," said Neinheart, "all we know is that we ended up here, and we couldn't find the others."

"Wait a minute, I think we can go back," said Xenon.

All heads turned towards Xenon. Everyone except Ruriko was eager to go back and looked forward to what he could do.

"Now all I have to do is just to summon…" Xenon tried to reach Roo-D with a communication device within him. Perchance Roo-D would come in a vehicle swift enough to send everyone back. But for some reason the device couldn't reach him, even as Xenon attempted a few more times. It was odd to Xenon as he was able to reach Roo-D to bring him back to the lab. "Nope, I think not, guys," he said.

"My faerie powers aren't working as well," said Athena. She would have easily headed back towards Henesys if she had.

Ruriko thought for a bit, then said, "I think you guys would have a long way back to your world, if not almost impossible. I would suggest you guys stay here for a while before you plan on your next move." The others reluctantly agreed. Their suspicions had already been confirmed.

* * *

"I still can't believe we are no longer in the Maple World. I don't even know there's another world besides our world and Grandis," said Irena.

"That's not important. If what that girl said was true, we should figure out how to return to our world. The Black Mage was strong enough to create a portal warping us into this world, so we need to find a way to create a similar portal back to the Maple World," said Neinheart, already planning the next move but just couldn't think of a suitable way.

Xenon was still trying to activate his energy sword. It wouldn't sparkle of energy or transform into any mode he wanted. Strangely, the jet-pack and missile launchers equipped onto him worked, although Xenon didn't activate them. The environment was silent, and he did not feel like disturbing it.

"How should we find someone as strong as the Black Mage to activate the portal?" asked Irena.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we will," replied Neinheart.

"It may be impossible, Neinheart," Athena said. She was lying on the mat spread out on the floor. "I doubted the girl at first. Her name was…Ruriko is it? I didn't know how someone from the other world would know of us so I wanted to cast a paralysing spell on her. I couldn't conjure the spell though. It just wouldn't work."

The sliding door slid open a few moments later and in came Claudine.

"I spoke with Ruriko just now," she said.

"What did she tell you?" asked Xenon, who finally gave up trying to activate his sword.

"She told me about the shrine, the village, the story behind these things, stuff like that. She told us that we are in some Kintai town, in some Kato Prefecture, Japan. She told me she knew magic never existed in here. I asked her how she knew about us. She wouldn't tell, just said that she didn't think our world existed too."

"Wait, hold on," Irena interrupted, "you said magic never existed in here?" Claudine merely nodded to her question.

"How do people in here live without magic?" asked a surprised Irena again.

"They might have their own ways different from us," said Neinheart. "By the way, did you try to notice her tone? Athena was suspecting her identity. Could be an agent for the Black Mage."

"I did. She sounds like an ordinary person from this world. I suppose we can worry about her later. I'm turning in," said Claudine as she collapsed onto the mat.

The room was quite cozy just as the environment is serene. Everyone else lied down on the mat and slept. They felt very tired from all that happened that day.

Except Athena. She was making some links to what happened and what she heard. Her mind suddenly wandered upon something.

The chronicles of MapleStory kept track of all that happened in the Maple World. That is within the knowledge of most Maplers. They knew the chronicles kept itself updated by magic.

Deep within the chronicles, there was something else. It was encrypted and hidden among the whole of the chronicles, and the only people who knew about the hidden content was Athena herself and Grendel the Really Old of Ellinia. Athena was trying to link the current occurrence with the secret content.  
 _  
Deep beyond the maple's reaches,  
Thereforth lies a universe of alternate.  
'Tis similar in a way of logic,  
Yet difference be devoid of sense.  
In such a place forth, enchantments an' sorceries  
Doth hath themselves permanently seal'd,  
In place of them science an' technology,  
Wild beyond the intelligence of magic,  
An' henceforth pronounced "the reality".  
The creation of the maple, the dimension of magic,  
Art but the works of such a universe  
Where intelligence of minds triumphs much levels.  
As beckon'd by difference of nonsense,  
The reality dost hath maple forbid'n,  
As doth the maple prohibit reality.  
Entrance art impossible not, ne'er the less.  
Such permission art gladly grant'd,  
By respective time, light, life, of which  
Rules of logic art compel'd to be met.  
Should such conditions be fail'd to adhere,  
He who crosses shalt find himself  
Trap'd between, a void of limbo._


	6. Chapter 5

**FIRST STEPS OF ADAPTATION**

Mercedes walked out of the house, sauntering through all the leaves that dewed at dawn. It was barely sunrise, and the only the chirping of crickets and the flow of river water can be heard in such a tranquil forest. It was chilly, but in a rather pleasant way. She had never felt this fresh ever since having needed to settle with a lot of commotions happening back in the Maple World. Perhaps this set back could calm her down a little.

Besides that, sunrise and sunset do not occur in the Maple World, only places where the sun shone, never moving out of its place, and places where the veil of darkness was permanently drawn, with the moon smiling up upon. It made Mercedes marvel upon the sun setting and drawing the veil over the forest with the moon's grace watching over them the day before. Now the sky was getting noticeably brighter. The sun will rise and bring its radiance to the forest. To her, this natural phenomenon added much livelihood to the calm forest.

Mercedes felt like she could permanently live in this beautiful world. But her people needed her. She deserved not such emancipation and had to return. For the time being, she decided to take in whatever was around her.

As the sky became even brighter and the rays of sunlight became more significant, Mercedes decided to head back. She walked back to see the old man, Soro's father, carrying an axe. He was headed to the area where many logs, wooden blocks and stumps were. As he saw Mercedes, he waved and called out to her in a language she couldn't understand. "Good morning," Mercedes smiled and greeted back.

She stood a while to watch the old man. He was wearing plain shirt, shorts, and a pair of sandals, with a farmer hat on the top of his head. A facial towel hung down from around his neck. Mercedes continued to admire as the old man put down his axe and placed a block of thick stem on a wooden stump. He then picked up his axe, raised it high, and swung his axe down swiftly, chopping the block down into half. Then he put down his axe, placed another block of wood on the stump and repeated the same process. It was apparent that the old man had done this a lot of times, yet his strength seemed to defy his old age.

Mercedes left him to cut the firewood and walked into the house. The smell of food hung in the air, and the sizzling of food could be heard. Her mouth watered. Her footsteps quickened to find the source of the smell. She stumbled upon Cygnus who trotted down the stairs.

"Morning," Cygnus said in a dreamy voice as she saw Mercedes, to which she returned the greeting. They walked to the back of the house together, beckoned by the delicious smell reeking out of there which had made them unbelievably hungry. They sat themselves on the dining table which had been prepared.

"Ah, morning ladies," Soro came in carrying two plates of dishes they had never seen before. "I assume you would be hungry for the morning so I prepared breakfast," he said before leaving the dining room again. Shortly after, Aran, Aranelle and Kyrin arrived.

"It smells so good! Why did you not wake us up for breakfast, Cygnus?!" asked Aranelle, pouting.

"But you guys look so peaceful in your sleep that I don't wanna wake you up!" Cygnus said with a smiley face.

Aranelle, stumbled upon the answer given, clenched her fists, shut her eyes tightly, trembled a little and burst out, "Fine! Nobody likes me anyway!"

Aran knocked on her head with his fist. Aranelle yelped and caressed her head with his hands. "Aranelle, could you behave yourself? We're in someone else's house and you're still showing this kind of attitude!" he said while the others laughed at them.

"Urgh, fine," said Aranelle, settling down at the table while the others joined in. Soro came in with a few more dishes and sat himself at the table just as breakfast was ready. His father went past the dining table just then, carrying a few buckets.

Soro stood and called out to his father. They both talked for a moment. A few minutes later Soro joined his guests at the table while his father left.

"My father said he wants to carry some water from the river back here before joining us for breakfast," said Soro, "So, yeah, enjoy your meal!"

As soon as Soro finished his words, Aranelle grabbed her fork and took one large piece of roasted chicken, stuffing it into her mouth. The others watched in awe.

"Wow, this is goo…Oh ow ah ah ah hot hot hot!" Aranelle burst out, literally throwing down her fork. She grabbed the pitcher and without hesitating, sloshed the water into her mug and gulped it all in.

"How do you like this _Sambal_ Chicken?" asked Soro while trying to hold back a giggle.

"It's not going away!" Aranelle complained. She had already drank several cups of water, but the tongue burn did not subside.

The others started eating, leaving Aranelle to deal with her issues. Breakfast was rather exotic and enjoyable. They had never had breakfast so scrumptious before. Everyone except Soro could not stand the _Sambal_ Chicken, though.

"Jeez, how do you even eat this stuff without getting burned on the tongue?" asked Kyrin who, too, drank a glass of water just after eating the chicken.

"Oh, we have already long adapted to spicy foods. We simply love them," said Soro.

"That's insane!" exclaimed Aranelle.

"So, what are your plans for the next few days?" asked Soro.

"No idea. We're still working on that," replied Mercedes.

"Alright then, if you guys need anything I'll always be here to help."

"Actually, we don't even know how to start. And it would take us some time to adapt to this place," Cygnus said with concern.

"Not too much a problem. I can always cope with you guys."

"I think for one I'll grow to love the food here," said Aran.

"I would if they are not spicy!" said Aranelle, and everyone laughed again.

They continued chatting while having their breakfast. For Soro, having unexpected guests in this secluded area made it more lively here. He still liked the peace and serenity, but it could get lonely being alone with his father.

Suddenly, a scream of an old man broke the silence. It was as if he shrieked in agony and pain, with a hint of despair in it. Instantly, they recognised the voice and knew something was up to no good.

"Father!" Soro gasped. Without further ado, he arose and rushed towards the entrance of the house and out. The others followed.

They followed Soro as he sprinted further and further away from the house, heading towards the river. Moments later, they found him halfway through. The old man was sitting on the ground, holding one of his knees in both hands. It bled rather profusely. There were buckets nearby, and water seemed to have spilled from it.

Soro spoke to the old man in a rather anxious tone. The old man only nodded, occasionally replying to his son. A few minutes later, Soro turned towards the others and said, "It's all right, father fell and hurt his knee. I thought there were more serious issues."

Soro proceeded to drape his father's arm over his shoulders and carried him in a support-carry position. They slowly headed back afterwards, while the others escorted them.

For some reason, Aran couldn't shake the feeling that there was something amiss in the whole of this.

* * *

 _I have stepped foot on this world._

 _For all the centuries serving my master, I knew nothing of this world._

 _I am walking among lesser beings that know of magic not. It is our duty to comply with the Dark Lord's command. They have to be destroyed. In addition, the Dark Lord plans to take over this world as well._

 _They are no different from these lowly beings. Their powers, unlike ours, are hindered in this world. This first subject, easily put to control under my paralysing spell, shall be my guise to accomplish this mission. By taking his form, I learn of everything of him._

 _Taking them down would be easy. Head on, however, is not a viable option._


	7. Chapter 6

**TO SURVIVE THIS REALM**

Checky looked at the list again. He was laying down comfortably on the sofa in the living room. It was Saturday and only the three of them were left in the apartment. Nami had gone to work before they even woke up. She had left the list for Checky, made by her while the others had gone to sleep early.

Phantom tried practising his skills in the room, something he usually did while on board Lumiere. Cards ceased to heed his commands, though, and they did not fly in a circle as per norm. Luminous couldn't do anything without his spells, so he tried to read some of Nami's books. His evil presence was not threatening to show, thankfully, but neither was his luminosity.

Checky looked at the list again. It was made on a rather small piece of paper, smaller than his palm. He eyed the fifteen names which were scribbled in pencil and hence appearing rather faint and glittery. "Still rather messy," he thought to himself as he assessed her handwriting.

His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he - and the others - had not had breakfast. He sat up and looked across to Luminous, who was sitting on the floor reading a book. The coffee table stood between them.

"Hey Luminous, you hungry?" Checky asked.

Luminous turned towards Checky. "No, I am…" Before he could finish, a rather loud rumble sounded from Luminous.

"I'll take that as a yes then," said Checky, giggling. He stood up and tried to look around Nami's apartment. There was nothing in the refrigerator, nothing in the kitchen cupboards. In short, there was no food left in the apartment. Neither was there any money for them. Nami must have left this out.

He figured Nami would not return in a few more hours so he had to somehow get some money for food. He returned to the living room, where Phantom and Luminous were. Phantom came out from the room and complained about his hunger.

"So it means we all need something to eat," Checky concluded. "But first, we need money."

Phantom's eyes lit up. "Money, you say?" He stood up and hurried back to the room. In less than a minute, Phantom came back to the living room, this time with his hat and robe.

"Err Phantom, you don't…" Checky tried to stop Phantom.

"No worries, I'll be right back as soon as possible."

"Phantom!" Checky called out, but Phantom had already vanished through the front door, leaving Luminous utterly confused.

"Sigh, I just remembered," said Checky as he took his wallet out and opened it. "Yep, still here, wonder if it still works…"

* * *

Phantom approached the entrance of what seemed to be a subway station. Below the sign that held the words 'Dhoby Ghaut' and beyond, the midday sun had bought in crowds of swift-paced workaholics and tourists wandering yonder. A few heads turned to Phantom's street-magician-like costume, but most hurried on their own ways, hardly paying any attention to him.

"A rushing and oblivious crowd…lovely! Just what need to nab some of the local greens," Phantom said to himself. He had done this a lot of times even before the first encounter with the Black Mage. He readied himself, his hunger pestering him to make haste.

With a deep sigh of breath, Phantom swiftly - and skillfully - made his way through the crowd and down the escalator, claiming wads and wallets and purses to himself each time his hands brushed across the pockets of the unknowing ones. He quickly found a toilet when he arrived just before the gantries and darted into the cubicle, catching attention from a few passers-by. Bill after bill he flipped as he counted his rewards.

"Interesting designs…three thousand, not bad for a rookie in this world," Phantom muttered, satisfied.

Phantom kept the bills in his pocket and walked out of the toilet, poker-faced as ever, into the still-oblivious crowd. He left all the wallets and purses in the cubicle, though. "Enough for the day," he thought as he ascended the flight of stairs back to the road. "You guys do need more exercise," his heart mocked the crowd formed at the escalator.

Turning back to the direction of the apartment, he felt two taps on his shoulder from behind. He turned around and was caught by surprise when he saw two handsomely-uniformed men approaching him.

"Excuse me sir," one of them spoke, "but you look quite suspicious in your clothes. Please come with us back to the police station."

"This is the outfit for police officers here? They look kinda funny," he thought for a second. Nonetheless, he knew he was trapped in a sticky situation, but he decided to oblige. Perchance there might be a loophole for him to pull a narrow escape. Seeing as more people turned their heads towards them, Phantom hesitated no more and followed the two cops. Half of him was still thinking how they knew what he had done. Or maybe they didn't. He would eventually be found out if he did not escape, though.

The crowd diminished little by little as the three of them went on. Phantom reached his right hand into his pocket. He felt them, his deck of cards. He wanted to try his powers again and see if it would help him escape, but his cards wouldn't budge no matter how hard he concentrated. His cane was left in the apartment when he came out to find some money.

Phantom thought of something else to deal with his cards instead. He remembered seeing many kinds of deceptions for escape, most popular probably being the typical attention-diversion trick. That could work in this case, but of course, Phantom is one proud gentleman. As one, he felt like he should take this to a next level instead of blindly following the norm.

With two fingers, Phantom secretly took out a piece of card from his pocket. Knowing the direction of the apartment and secretly hoping that the laws of physics in this world were the same as those in the Maple World, he tossed his card upwards at the slight lack of attention on him. Without further ado, Phantom pointed to his card and yelled, "Hey look, flying card!"

"What? Where?" Before long, the two cops caught a glance of the strange, swift flying object that seemed to blew past them upwards. Within the short span of turning of heads, Phantom darted away as fast as possible.

"Hey! He's escaping!" one yelled behind him as he raced back towards the crowd. He had absolutely no time to look behind. Fortunately, the mob had yet to dissipate, and Phantom soon found himself half-squeezing through the crowd, catching a few Ouches, Ow-s, Oi-s, What-the-s, and Watch-where-you're-going-s.

Phantom turned around the corner of a building and slowed down, returning to the status of an ordinary person walking on the streets. Amongst the crowd, he heard faint voices of the two cops behind.

"He's gone!" said one.

"He couldn't have gone far. Search around," the other spoke.

Phantom sighed, this time a breath of relief. He still quickened his pace, and left the place as quickly and as poker-faced as possible lest he met with more trouble. Fortunately, he met with no obstacle on his way back to the apartment.

* * *

"Oh, you're back," Luminous spoke as Phantom stepped in the doorway. "How did it go out there?"

"Not quite smooth," said Phantom, still panting, "a few bumps here and there, but managed to survived."

"So, you got some money you said you're going to?" asked Luminous.

Phantom said nothing, instead taking out the wad of bills from his pocket and proudly whopped it on the coffee table.

"This much I got, could last us for a few weeks here."

Luminous frowned and asked, "You didn't run into any trouble did you?"

"I don't know, maybe I did. 'Tis a wonder that a piece of card can do so much," Phantom looked out of the apartment barricades.

"Err, Phantom, I don't mean to disappoint you but…"

"Oh look, it's back," Phantom interrupted.

A piece of card swiftly flew between the apartment blocks like an eagle. A slight gust of wind changed its course and it headed towards their direction. Phantom reached out his hand and caught the card with two fingers.

"You've done it again, mate," Phantom spoke to the card and placed it back in his pocket.

"Whoa!" the sound of a girl gasped near them, "How did you do that?!"

"Hey Nami," Luminous called out, "don't feel surprised, he does that all the time."

"But that's literally impossible! We are at the tenth floor! I mean, wow, just wow!" Nami stepped in, still unable to believe Phantom's ability.

"Err, and Phantom, I don't mean to disappoint you…" Luminous spoke again, but Phantom wasn't listening.

"'Tis simple once you learned it, thankfully things work the way it does in the Maple World, so I could pull that out," he said to Nami.

"Phantom, I don't…" Luminous tried to speak again.

"What's all the commotion out there?" Checky came out of the bedroom. "Oh hey, welcome back Nami," he said when he saw Nami.

"Hey Checky, Phantom said he got three thousand for us. Think you should tell him?" asked Luminous, "I tried. Interrupted."

"You tell him, not me!" Checky said, half-pleading, half-demanding.

"Alright then Phantom, I have something to tell you," Luminous hesitated, clearing his throat before continuing, "While you were out there, stirring up trouble for these money you got, or maybe not, Checky went out too, and in only like, 15 minutes got one thousand back safe and sound. And you came back more than 2 hours after that. So, I was gonna tell you that you could have saved all the trouble you would have otherwise caused out there."

Phantom was just about to brag about the difference in values when Checky spoke first, "And fyi, I still have about sixty thousand dollars left in my savings account here. Used to be a travelling mascot for more than fifteen years, had to go round the world for those years before settling back in Edelstein to help out. For ease of expense, I opened a bank account in every country I travelled. ATM works wonders, you know?" He proudly flashed out a shiny card with a small golden chip on it.

Checky continued, "Even before you went out, Phantom, I tried to tell you to save your strength. Too bad, you were gone before I could say anything. About the food, I bought it on the way back, Luminous and I ate it. We decided to save some for you but I ate it because it went cold."

"Oh…" Phantom felt his heart sank to the ground floor. He instantly felt defeated. "I probably am wanted in this world now…" said Phantom before retreating to his room, with Nami staring blankly at him, confused at the situation.

"Bingo," whispered Checky to Luminous.

"About what?"

"The trouble part."

"Oh by the way, I bought lunch for everyone," Nami spoke up, trying to compensate for the lack of breakfast.

"You're back quite early today, Nami," said Checky.

"Well, I work half-day on Saturdays, don't you remember?"

* * *

"Hey Phantom, you got lucky. Nami bought food for us," Phantom heard Luminous calling out.

Phantom hadn't felt like going out yet. He didn't feel quite exhausted, but thought a rest is needed for him to chill out. His hunger had strangely diminished, even though he hadn't had any food.

He plopped down and tried to stay comfortable on the mattress, but couldn't quite do so. He got up and tried to practise with his cane and cards. Magic works not, and his cane kept dropping for some reason while he was spinning it, so he laid down on the bed again. His mind could not stop thinking about his hurt pride, and Checky's words.

"Wait a minute," something came over him, "Checky did say he came to this world before returning to Edelstein. If he really does, how did he travel to and fro?"

Phantom thought about it over and over again. Before long, he drifted off to sleep.

Checky looked at the list again as he ate. Luminous was still chatting with Nami.

There seemed to be something he had missed. As he looked at the fifteen names, there seemed to be something irregular about it. It took him some time to realise that the irregularities were caused by the light, which revealed the scribblings behind the paper. "That was stupid of me to not check the back side all the while," he thought. And so he did.

He saw the new set of names, much to his horror. There were seven of them, besides the fifteen at the front side. He could not believe his eyes.

"Nami, these are the complete list of vanished characters?" he asked to confirm.

"Err yeah, I checked with the game and the forums, this is the complete list."

Checky looked at the seven names again. The thought of finding the remaining twelve people had already stressed him out, and now there were seven more names.

Worst of all, none of the seven names were his allies.

* * *

Phantom wandered through a realm of darkness. All was black in this realm. The ground he walked on was invisible, but each footsteps he made on the ground glowed rather faintly.

He proceeded to walk on, and in a distance he thought he saw a familiar sight, glowing faintly. As he neared the being, he started to recognise it.

"Aria!" Phantom said to himself. He quickened his pace, wanting to get near to her as quickly as possible. He had been missing her dearly, and the hope of reunion seemed possible at the very moment.

He approached her while calling out her name a few times. Aria was floating in mid air, wearing the same dress as the one she wore during her death, looking peaceful and beautiful as ever. Her eyes were closed, however.

Phantom called out to her again and tried to reach for her hand. At the moment his fingers wrapped around her hand, Aria slowly opened her eyes. They glowed very radiantly.

Aria started to speak. Her voice sounded the same as before, but it echoed as though a few other Arias were also speaking at the same time.

 _"_ _Deep beyond the maple's reaches,  
Thereforth lies a universe of alternate.  
'Tis similar in a way of logic,  
Yet difference be devoid of sense.  
In such a place forth, enchantments an' sorceries  
Doth hath themselves permanently seal'd,  
In place of them science an' technology,  
Wild beyond the intelligence of magic,  
An' henceforth pronounced "the reality".  
The creation of the maple, the dimension of magic,  
Art but the works of such a universe  
Where intelligence of minds triumphs much levels.  
As beckon'd by difference of nonsense,  
The reality dost hath maple forbid'n,  
As doth the maple prohibit reality.  
Entrance art impossible not, ne'er the less.  
Such permission art gladly grant'd,  
By respective time, light, life, of which  
Rules of logic art compel'd to be met.  
Should such conditions be fail'd to adhere,  
He who crosses shalt find himself  
Trap'd between, a void of limbo."_

As she finished the last sentence, Aria's body started to glow brighter and brighter, until Phantom could hardly see her at all.

"Aria? Aria!" Phantom screamed, but all around him was too bright. Suddenly, the glow died down and everything vanished. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on his bed. Checky and Luminous were snoring away just beside him.

'A dream. Aria has something to tell me,' Phantom thought as he woke from his bed.


	8. Chapter 7

**DATE AND DISTRESS**

Tear woke up – well, if she ever slept, that is – feeling rather tired. The outside seemed so bright for some reason. It was rather peculiar considering that it was dark before she turned herself in.

She wished she could continue back to sleeping, but something seemed to deter her from entering the slumber land any longer. At last, she got up. She mustered up her strength and hobbled a little towards the bathroom.

Her mirror reflected that she could not have been any worse, even when her buster suit and pink twintails are still there. Regardless, she decided she needed to see Kyle one last time before he goes all happy with his date. And so she sprinkled her face with water and looked into the mirror again. That will have to do, she thought, looking slightly more like herself.

She went up to Kyle's room, again hesitating a little bit, but still finally managed to press the bell. The nervousness within her did not subside all the while, half of her eager to see Kyle one last time, and the other half not knowing how to clear the awkward atmosphere she knew would soon form later on.

The door swung open some seconds later, and Tear was struck with awe. He could not describe the person in front of her who came and open the door.

"Hey, good morning Tear. Please come in!" said Kyle, but Tear still seemed awestruck. It wasn't until Kyle started waving his hand a few times in front of her face that she shook herself back to Earth.

"Oh, mo...morning Kyle..." Tear stuttered. She slowly entered the room, eyes still somewhat fixated on Kyle's unusual self.

"Is something wrong with me, Tear? You don't look like yourself, mate," asked Kyle, noticing something wrong with her gaze.

Tear came to her senses once again. She still could not believe the Kyle she was seeing in front of her own eyes.

Kyle was wearing a black shirt, with a visibly matching black tie that was partially concealed beneath a vest which was handsomely buttoned up, and it hugged Kyle's figure nicely, making him seem a lot more manlier than usual, even without the transformation. The equally black pants matched the top rather appropriately too, but what stood out most was the white coat – it was called a tuxedo, I think? Tear thought – that was worn outside the vest. It had a black satin edge, a notch step collar, two flap pockets at both sides of the hips, and the white colour bore a striking contrast to the all-black outfit within the coat that made Kyle beamed more in sex appeal. He was smartly and formally overdressed, ready for the date, and he didn't even look one bit like that disgusting man Spiegelmann, but a paragon of the ideal Nova manhood. Now that she noticed, his horns were somehow concealed, even though he wasn't wearing a hat. His wings should be hidden somewhere under that shirt, she guessed.

For the third time, Tear brought herself to consciousness without needing Kyle's assistance. She managed an uneasy laughter and said, "Uhh...wow, Kyle, you look so cool today."

"Do I? I thought this suit looks quite weird on me. I mean, wow, I have never worn such formal clothes before."

"Where the hell did you get them?" asked Tear.

"Well, this morning after I woke up, someone rang the bell before you. When I opened the door somebody gave me a package. It came along with a message telling me to wear this for today and how to wear it. Meh, not like I don't know how to wear my own clothes, tch," said Kyle, smirking a little, "By the way, Tear, you got something for me?" he asked as Tear slowly sat down on the sofa.

"I...uh..." Tear found herself stuttering again., "I...just want to see you for the last time before you go off for the day."

"Ahh, thanks a lot. I really needed that. This date is making me so nervous..."

Kyle went to get two cups of water, and came back handing one to Tear as he sat beside her. Both of them drank and merely stared around for a few more moments.

"You know, Tear, I still have to tell you that I would never expect a date in this world," said Kyle as he put down his cup, "But I can assure you something. After all the play-date and all that, I will learn more about this world and I will definitely find a way to head back to Grandis! Whoever my date is, I'm sure she will be more than happy to help us out."

"Oh Kyle, Kyle, you still don't know about us girls do you..." Tear spoke in her heart before continuing, "I hope so too."

Suddenly remembering something, Tear reached into the pocket of her blouse. They were still there. She took them out while Kyle turned towards her with curiosity. In her hands were three heart-shaped candies. Kyle recognised this candy. It was made and refined from Grobbler Stalks commonly found around Pantheon, forming a natural heart shape by itself in the process. It is coated in a layer of dried syrup made from Grobbler flowers to enhance the sweetness of the candy. Tear knew that Kyle loved it.

"Here, take these... I still have them with me. It's... it's just a token of gratitude for consoling me back then. Please, do well for the date," said Tear, smiling.

"Oh wow, you still have them with you? Thanks a lot!" replied Kyle, taking them from Tear, even as he had forgotten the time he had consoled her. "You know Tear, you're the best friend I have had so far!" Kyle paused for a moment, then let out a deep sigh, and continued, "besides Velderoth..."

"H-hey, that's what friends are for, right?" said Tear, "If only you knew..." she added, in her heart.

Just then, something in the living room started to chime repeatedly. It came from the clock, apparently, showing that it was 9 o'clock. Saeg Laeng did say he would see Kyle at 9am.

"D-do you need me to come with you, Kyle? I'm interested to see who your date is," offered Tear.

"Would you? That would be awesome!" said Kyle as both of them stood up and headed out.

They arrived at the lobby to find Saeg Laeng already there waiting for them.

"Ahh, there you are, Kyle-ssi!" Saeg Laeng called out rather loudly, catching attentions from those around him, "Good morning, did you sleep well? Or rather, could you not sleep because you are excited about today, lucky guy? So anyway, are you ready for your big day today?"

"Uhh..." said Kyle, but Saeg Laeng interrrupted again before he could finish.

"Why did I ask, of course you look ready! Come here, come, come!" he said as he literally pushed him towards the entrance.

"But uhh, Saeg Laeng-hyung, my friend there..."

"Oh, why would you need anyone else, this day is all about you! Your friend can just do something else, couldn't she? Come along, your ride has arrived..."

They came to the entrance and already there was indeed a grand coach waiting for them there. Tear watched in bewilderment as Saeg Laeng nudged Kyle into the black limousine. Tear waved to Kyle as he waved back from inside the car while it started to rumble and slowly took off. She didn't know what made him able to force a smile despite knowing that she was clearly unhappy. Nothing to do, she thought, and decided that it would be best to discover more of this world and catch on with some sleep if need be.

* * *

Kyle, being somehow forced inside, was still confused as Saeg Laeng ordered the driver to drive. He looked back at Tear who was still standing and the lobby, waving to her as he watched her wave back with a mock smile, becoming smaller and smaller, and gradually vanishing from sight. He knew she wasn't truly happy for him and he couldn't help feeling guilty about all of this. But if this meant a chance to return back to Grandis, he would be willing to take the risk.

"So for today we will take you for a 2-hour tour round the capital of our nation here, the big city of Seoul! After that, we will stop at a fine dining restaurant for lunch, and that would be where you finally get to meet your date! Heh, aren't you excited, Kyle-ssi?" said Saeg Laeng as he mock-smacked Kyle on his back, catching him in surprise.

Throughout the journey Kyle remained somehow enshrined in a mixture of nervousness, guilt, discomfort and excitement, and did not talk much or pay much attention while Saeg Laeng showed him around Seoul. Saeg Laeng tried to get him for a chit-chat on the ride, but Kyle still remained reluctant.

At last, the limo came to a screeching halt. A chaperone opened the door, signalling for Kyle to alight. Kyle stepped out, already marvelling what was in front of him. He looked up and saw the name of the restaurant. Jung Sik Dang, the name read, apparently in Pantheose.

Kyle followed Saeg Laeng into the restaurant. Never once in his life had he been into a fine dining restaurant before, and seeing what it was like within made him feel even more nervous, but Saeg Laeng did a rather good job of assuring him. At last, they arrived at a table for two. A young woman sat there, looking rather impatient. When she saw Kyle, her face beamed brightly.

She looked rather cute and pretty with her long and wavy red hair, bright red cheeks and brown eyes, while her dark pink lips adorned her face even more. She only looked more elegant and attractive in her spaghetti-strapped short purple dress. And as she stood up to greet, for some reason Kyle felt like he had found his type of other-half.

"Present yourself in a confident and gentlemanly manner. Don't you dare embarrass yourself in front of your date!" Tear's advice rang at his ear.

"I have already got your lunch covered, so don't worry about that. Meanwhile, have fun and I'll have you picked up when you finish lunch. I have more errands to run for now. Nice knowing you, Kyle-ssi!" said Saeg Laeng after Kyle sat down, as he took his leave.

Kyle was left there, alone with the girl at the table. The awkwardness was there, and he knew it. It was the girl who broke the silence first.

"H-hello there, name's Yeon Jyu Min, what's your name?" she asked, in Pantheose.

"I'm Kyle, nice to meet you," Kyle said as he stood up and bowed. However, he bumped in a waitress as his chair scooted backwards, and she almost dropped her plate she was serving. Kyle quickly apologised to the waitress.

Jyu Min gave a slight giggle as Kyle sat back down. "Feeling nervous too?" she asked again.

"Y-yea, sure am."

"Ehehe, I like your style, Kyle."

They conversed as they waited for their food, Kyle learning more and more of Jyu Min and more about the culture of the world he was in as they spoke. He tried bringing up the topic of dimension-crossing but Jyu Min averted the subject, saying it was too much a child's play.

The food arrived after a good half an hour's talk. It was way different from the ones he had experienced back at Pantheon. He hadn't practised fine dining before, and his clumsiness only caught more giggles from Jyu Min. Kyle's burp startled everyone in the restaurant, and so on that day he had learned not to do so in a place like that.

The same limo came to pick them up as they stepped out of the restaurant. The chaperone came and opened the door, but Kyle stopped him and opened it instead, offering for Jyu Min first. Ladies first for always, Tear had said.

Jyu Min always seemed to be radiating with excitement within her as both of them did not know what was planned ahead, and they had a lively chat. Before long, the limo came to a stop and they both alighted the limo. Kyle looked at the place he stood. In front of him were two towers, each with a dome on top of them. Beyond the two towers was a bridge crossing a moat surrounding what seemed like a castle-like structure. There were street lamps at both sides of the bridge as it stretched inwards, each bearing a banner with the words "Lotte World" on it.

Before even finished with admiring the environment, Jyu Min pulled onto his arm and dragged him into it while running like two innocent children. It was an amusement park, and a rather huge one too, even larger than the fantasy theme parks at Maple-World-Malaysia and Ludibrium combined.

Before he even knew it, Jyu Min had pulled him to eight rides and attractions in the amusement park. Kyle went dizzy from riding the French Revolution, the Drunken Basket and Atlantis while confused at watching shows like the Haunted House and the 4D Shooting Theatre. He was still baffled at the various colourful aspects of the alternate dimension that when he came to, he was riding on a swan boat with Jyu Min, alone on the canal.

"That was so very fun!" said Jyu Min, exhausted but still excited.

"Yeah, sure is," said Kyle.

Both of them looked towards the scenery. The sky became noticeably darker and more yellow as the sun began to set, something new to Kyle as the world of Grandis was permanently shone under the bright moon.

"Looking at the sun set, night will come very soon. Savour the beauty of the setting sun while you're at it, they said," Jyu Min spoke, in a relatively light tone.

"Jyu Min, if you're the moon ever shining so radiantly in the sky, I shall be the night sky ever accepting your presence, ever so humble and ever so contrasting with your beauty," Kyle decided it was the right time and tried one of Tear's recommended pick-up lines.

"Oh, Kyle-oppa, you're so sweet!"

"If I am ever so sweet, it's because of your presence that I am so," another one of Tear's pick-up lines.

"I'm so glad, Kyle-oppa..."

"You know, even when we just met, I felt like we will both live a happy life together and ever, and we will never leave each other, right Jyu Min?" Kyle tried to smile and look at her this time. The words were not exactly how Tear's lines, as he modified them to fit the situation. Kyle felt like he could look at Jyu Min's face forever and still not get bored.

"Oh Kyle-oppa, it's only the first day and I already feel so in love with you! Please, kiss me?" Jyu Min turned towards Kyle, expression full of love and desperation.

"Uhh, uhh sure," Kyle felt nervous again. Still, he scooted closer as Jyu Min started closing her eyes and open her lips a notch. As their lips touched, Kyle felt himself getting dizzy and uncontrollable. He wanted her more.

At that slight moment, Jyu Min smiled without breaking the kiss.

* * *

Tear jerked from her sleep. She still couldn't believe what she saw in her dream turned nightmare. It was something that she could never accept had it been real. But she still could not shake it off. Something told her that it was a foresight, a sort of prophecy, a prophecy that soon would become a cruel reality. She got up and, not even bothered to tidy herself, grabbed the card and rushed out of her room. She knew where they were. She had seen it in her dreams.

She ran past the janitors who watched her as she zipped past by. No time for the lift, she thought, as she took the stairs instead. She ran past the lobby patrons, bumping into some along the way, but she had no time to listen to their complaints.

She ran out of the lobby and into the streets, certain of the way from what she saw in her nightmare. The roads were still flocked with vehicles, moving or stationary, but Tear did not care. She ran on the streets, pass the shops, other passers-by, through the sparkling lights as they started to illuminate to counteract the darkness about to be drawn over the whole of metropolis. She did not even stop for the traffic lights as everyone turned heads to her and some yelled rudely at her. But nothing will stop her. The soul shooter and bracelet still on her hands will be her only support. She did not feel the least bit exhausted.

Memories went back to her somehow. How Kyle and Tear had to painstakingly take down Velderoth, after everything they had tried to do but without success. How she had started helping out after becoming the Angelic Buster, and even then she was so welcomed by the Nova male community. How she had been embraced by Eskalade and his funny attitudes. How Kyle had been named the next Kaiser, which eventually broke the three of them apart. How she, Kyle and Velderoth had formed the Helisium Forces out of childhood innocence. How Kyle had consoled her and cheered her up when she felt the most down, the period when the Helisium Forces broke up and all parted ways. The shiny stones and flowers he had gotten for her had been most surprising. They are merely typical stones and flowers easily harvested around Pantheon, but they felt a little special, somehow. Her Buster suite had a special spot holding these little things, as a memento and a sign of gratitude.

The environment around her grew eerily and painfully familiar, even though the crowds of the metropolis were still around. After a long while, she suddenly stopped. She knew she was here. She turned her head, and saw the scene that was precisely in her nightmare.

The entrance into the place had two towers at both sides, each bearing a dome at the top and shone radiantly with sparkling lights. Beyond the two towers was a bridge that had street lamps – each with a banner displaying the words "Lotte World" hung below the light - at both sides as it stretched inwards, built over a moat that surrounded what seemed to be a castle with ever-changing lights. There were still a lot more within that castle-like structure, she knew. Crowds of people entering and exiting from the castle were present, mostly taking pictures of this magnificent structure that was even more magnificent than the temple of Pantheon itself, and much more vivacious too.

Tear braced herself for what she knew was waiting for him, and stepped into the mystery.

* * *

 **Earlier that day, 5.30am**

 _The man sat at the table, sipping at the cocktail he randomly ordered. A taste that resembles rather closely to the taste of the local wine back at home. He wandered his head around, and after deciding there was nothing particularly interesting to him, he returned his gaze at the door, impatiently tapping his foot on the ground. A few moments later, an elegant-looking woman entered the bar. She surveyed the bar for a moment before her eyes landed on him. She gave a slight smile and walked towards him._

 _"Are you quite sure this is going to work out?" asked the man, dressed in a rather smart and fancy outfit and wearing a bowler hat._

 _"I am sure about this," the woman replied as she sat at the table he was sitting. The bar was barely illuminated with a few lights that hung loosely from the ceiling, and seemed significantly darker than the outside where the moon actually shone bright. The smell of alcohol hung rather heavily in the air but in a pleasant way. There was not many people in there, except the bartender and a few familiar faces. "Everything's going the way I plan it. Won't be long till the kaiser and the idol fall in our hands."_

 _"Commander Hilla, we are here to execute our master's command! We are here to destroy them and aid him to expand into the real world, not play date like some five-year-old kid would do!" said the man rather seriously, trying to remind the woman of her duty._

 _"Oh shut it, this is gonna go swimmingly. You would want those horns and wings of yours to get a little fresh air, wouldn't you, Magnus?"_

 _"Whatever, let's just kill them straight and be on our next mission," said Magnus, feeling irritated._

 _"No can do, heck I even learned Pantheose for this sake!" said Hilla. She looked at Magnus's eyes which bore a hint of cunningness – and more of boredom - and continued, "And I knew the name Saeg Laeng suits you well. Too well." She could not help letting out a giggle as she spoke that in Pantheose, and Magnus grunted, not amused at all._

 _"By the way, where are they now?" asked Hilla, serious this time._

 _"In the hotel, the one you wanted. Still sleeping, I believe," Magnus looked at his watch, one he acquired along with the outfits of the unlucky victim he took form of. He still looked like himself, but in a more socially-acceptable manner. Whatever considered alien to the reality was concealed underneath the fancy clothing._

 _"Perfect," said Hilla as she took out a tube of lipstick from her handbag. She removed the lid and turned the base, exposing the tip which had a sensual dark pink colour. Magnus watched confusingly as Hilla used a finger of her other hand and slowly orbiting the tip. A curious dark-coloured smoke appeared around her finger and vanished around the tip while it started to glow faintly. When Hilla was done, she gave a nonchalant yet cunningly sexy smile to Magnus before taking out a small cosmetic kit. She looked into it and started applying the lipstick._

 _"Who the hell did you even take form of, by the way?" Magnus said as she admired Hilla. Unlike how she looked assertive when leading invasions, she looked rather elegant and much more attractive in her spaghetti-strapped short purple dress, apparently backless. It was as if Magnus was looking at a completely different person._

 _"I'd rather keep it a secret," Hilla said as she added a few final touches to her lips. "There we go, all set. Kaiser will never know what's coming for him…"_

 _"What about Angelic Buster?" asked Magnus._

 _"Oh, you can do anything you want to her, but Kaiser's all mine," she smirked as the first rays of sun started hitting the tinted windows._


	9. Chapter 8

**TIME, LIGHT, LIFE**

 _We have come this far. We must locate the key._

 _The Key of the Creator. A key itself to unlock the very mysteries of all creations, forged with the wisdoms of the Overseers of the Maple World to learn the wonders of the creations from the religious gods of the reality and beyond. Whosoever possesses of it, possesses the power strongest of all those that have existed, for it is the only power that truly shatters the ultimate limits of the Maple World. With such power of indescribable force and potential, it is certain that the bearer of this key shall have the power to exert complete control over the other world and manipulate all its order, limited only by the will and decision of him._

 _We must locate the key. The Dark Lord demands it._

* * *

The morning sun shone through the valleys as the waters of the river continued to flow, glimmering as if to welcome the rising sun of Japan. The light illuminated the mountainous region around Heian Yamagawa Shrine, whose colour blended nicely with the greenery that dominated mother nature.

Ruriko arose early before the new visitors. She donned the green hakama outside her nightgown and came to the shrine with a broom. Putting her broom down, she knelt in front of the grand statue of the hayato and silently chanted her prayers. It had been the family's tradition to do so every morning upon sunrise.

After a while, she got up. Picking up her broom, she began to sweep the leaves that had gathered themselves at the torii. She would have to sweep the pavements aside from the shrine itself, something she did not find quite burdensome to do.

As Ruriko started sweeping outside of the shrine compound, she saw two people approaching the shrine, again not from the entrance but from within the shrine. Ruriko turned and saw two travellers, seemingly lost, walking toward her direction.

Athena knew from the clues of the chronicles that they were in a realm called the reality. But what kind of magic would be strong enough to severe the line between the Maple World and the reality?

As the others slowly woke up, Athena told them about her findings. She wrote the poem down on a piece of paper as far as she could remember. Neinheart was the first to pick it up. He tried to decipher the message within the chronicles.

"Entrance art impossible not, ne'er the less. Such permission art gladly grant'd by respective time, light, life, of which rules of logic art compel'd to be met," Neinheart repeated the lines over and over again, trying to find clues as to how a portal could be opened.

"Time, light, life," said Claudine. Suddenly, something came over her mind. "The transcendents! Transcendents of time, light and life!"

At this point, it became clearer to the five of them. "The transcendents in our world are Rhinne, Alice, and..." said Irena.

"The Black Mage," Neinheart continued.

"So, if we can somehow get them to open the portal, we could get back to our world!" said Claudine, feeling hopeful. But Neinheart shook his head.

"The poem is not being clear about this. There is no 'and' or 'or' mentioned in here. We don't know if we need the three of them or just one. The Black Mage had the power to do so himself probably because the dark powers greatly strengthened him. What's more, we don't even know if we could reach the transcendents in our world from here!"

"This is getting complicated, I'm gonna go outside and take a walk," said Irena as she stood up and exited the room.

The remaining four remained silent as they tried to sort out the message. Suddenly, Neinheart noticed something.

"Hey guys, look!" Neinheart pointed to a significant word in the poem, "respective time, light, life. Respective. Athena, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Athena hesitated for a while. A similar realisation hit her and it became clear. "It's the reality. The reality has its own transcendents. Three of them in this world!" Neinheart nodded in agreement.

"This means if we can find all three of them in this world, we should be able to get them to channel a portal back to our world. All we need to do is to gather the rest of the people and we can all get back safe and sound!" Athena said in excitement.

Xenon scooted over to Claudine and asked, "Didn't Ruriko told you yesterday that magic doesn't exist in this world? How should we find the transcendents if they themselves don't even know they are the transcendents of the reality?"

Athena shrunk. She completely forgot about this part. Now it's only getting more and more complicated. "A little too optimistic, weren't we?" Neinheart chuckled.

Nevertheless, they knew how hard it was to find all three of them in this world so much bigger than the Maple World. They didn't even know how to begin finding the rest of the crew at first. Meanwhile, Claudine thought of what Ruriko told her yesterday about the place they were in.

* * *

 _"Well, you saw that shrine first when you came into this place, right? It's the Heian Yamagawa Shrine. It got its name for several reasons," said Ruriko. "Go on," Claudine encouraged._

 _"Notice that around this place were numerous mountains and hills and valleys. Legend has it that there was a legendary hayato who fled from war during the Sengoku Era, which was an era of warring nations in Japan, and took refuge alone in the place. The local villagers here in this village at that time were unaware of the Sengoku Era, and when news reached our village about the hayato, everyone was shocked and amazed. His tales of the Sengoku Era affected the people greatly, just as how beautifully and heavenly he described the mountainous scenery here."_

 _"Wait, what did you say again about the Era?" asked Claudine._

 _"What about it?"_

 _"The place the warring nations were in. You mentioned something called Japan?"_

 _"Mhm, we are in a country called Japan now. It's the actual name of Zipangu."_

 _"Oh, I see, interesting. Carry on."_

 _"Anyway, the hayato died almost as suddenly as his appearance in the village, sadly. In honour of him, the villagers built a shrine on top of a hill, where they cremated his body. That statue you saw in the shrine, that was built for him, too. His ashes were sprinkled amongst the scenery, which was his dying wish. The shrine was first given the name Yamagawa for the various mountains around the shrine and a nearby river which was a vital source of water for the village. Yama means mountains and Gawa means rivers in Japanese._

 _"Yamagawa Shrine did not gain the description Heian until a few centuries later. Centuries after the death of the hayato, population of our village began to shrink due to youths moving out to the urban areas. By mid-Edo, the number of families in the village shrunk to one, the Inoue family - my family - who continued to maintain the shrine's welfare back then. Unlike during the past when the village was once lively with people living harmoniously with one another, the atmosphere was very quiet almost all the time. We did not complain, but instead enjoyed the serenity and tranquil of the area. Tales of the hayato were passed down generations to generations and all of us in my family knew the importance of peace and harmony, sincerely appreciating it. Thus, my ancestors added the description Heian, renaming the shrine to Heian Yamagawa Shrine, meaning the peaceful mountains and river._

 _"The shrine has been and still is a great importance to our village here. See the corridor at the back of the shrine where you saw many stone tablets? Those bear the name of the people who had lived and died in this village, my ancestors included. Speaking of my ancestors, even after the 21st century, they continued to live in the deserted village. We had a family tradition of having at least one male descendant to stay in the village and continue the legacy as well as maintaining the shrine. Thanks to this family tradition, the legacy went on and generations living in there continued to prosper, living off homegrown fruits and vegetables and the water of the river. All of us in this family agreed to keep the village and the shrine a secret from the others, which also became part of the family tradition eventually._

 _"Unfortunately, during the mid 20th century, the sole heir of my family, my father Satoshi Inoue became sterile after giving birth to my three older sisters and me. Had a family discussion, and we came to an agreement where I, the youngest daughter would stay on and maintain the sole house of the village and the shrine. My sisters Yayoi, Nanase and Chisato all moved out of the village and each had their own families abroad."_

 _"So, are you the only one here now?"_

 _"Until you people came, me and me only," Ruriko affirmed._

* * *

Irena strolled towards the shrine, hoping to find Ruriko. The route from her house to the shrine proved quite a walk even though it was not an extremely long one, especially since Irena lost all her magic in this world.

She came to the shrine, noticing how much tidier it looked compared to the day before when they first arrived there. Obviously Ruriko's job, she thought, assuming she was the only inhabitant around these parts. She walked through the shrine, and at last found Ruriko near the torii. She was talking to two strangers.

Irena didn't like the looks of these strangers. Both of them seemed grimly...familiar. She thought it best to keep a safe distance between them.

Ruriko led the two travellers into the shrine as the two of them went into the main hall. They went in front of the statue and knelt down to pray, one of them chanting his prayers. Irena silently watched as the two travellers stood up and followed Ruriko to where she lived – to where the other members of the crew were staying.

* * *

"Hey guys, there'll be two joining us today!" Ruriko said as she entered the threshold of her house.

The four of them came out of the room, curious to see the two newcomers. The two of them looked a bit startled to see them, but still greeted them nonetheless. Neinheart couldn't help shivering a little bit as he felt their handshakes.

The two of them introduced themselves as Daisuke Komamura and Toruki Hayakawa, while the four of them each introduced themselves as they sat around the table on their respective tatamis. Ruriko came out a while later from the kitchen serving them cups of tea as they exchanged conversations with one another. They were close to revealing their actual background until Athena nudged all of them to not do so.

Irena came in shortly after. However, she did not look as welcoming towards the two strangers as the other four. She passed by the table without even looking at them, and went into the room straight. Athena considered calling her out, but Neinheart stopped her.

They continued chatting until Ruriko decided it was time to show the two newcomers their room and around the shrine and the village.

The four of them returned to the room to see a depressed Irena lying on the matress, pretending to be asleep.

"Irena, that's not very nice of you to treat guests like that," Neinheart was the first to speak.

"Oh yeah? Did you even notice how c-creepy they look?" Irena retaliated in defence.

"She has a point," said Claudine, "they did seem a little familiar. I can't remember where I've seen them, though."

"Well, in any case, let's not let our guard down," said Athena, bringing the argument to a close, "There's no telling whether the Black Mage's commanders have planned to attack when we're most defenceless. It is possible that they might have stepped foot into this world."

* * *

The midnight moon dimly shone through the valleys as the waters of the river continued to flow, glimmering as if to assist in alleviating the darkness that was drawn over the region. The environment was peaceful and silent, except for the sound of crickets which only added to the peace in nature.

They came to the hallway behind the shrine, darkness looming the long corridor housing the stone tablets of the previous ancestors.

"I dearly wish to set up a new kingdom here. This place looks just as beautiful as my former kingdom. I-I just want to see a kingdom so peaceful and beautiful like how it is here, so full of laughters, and...with her still by my side...I say we come up with a new plan," the one with the long red hair said.

"I admire your vision, Von Leon, but tell me, who do you serve now?" asked the other.

Von Leon hesitated before replying, "The Dark Lord. I serve the Dark Lord. I apologise for zoning out, Damien."

"Good," said Damien as he turned back facing the seemingly endless tunnel. "The curse I have chanted during our arrival should have taken effect by now, they should all be under my control."

Von Leon kept silent. He wished he could set up a new kingdom and start all over again. The serene environment and scenery around the shrine brought back so many memories of his former kingdom, which had been so harmonious and peaceful and beautiful, just like Ifia. If only the Knights hadn't invaded the kingdom. Just the thought of that reminded him why he served the Black Mage in the first place. He snapped out of his thoughts and focused back on Damien.

Damien chanted something under his breath, and Von Leon could hardly hear him at all. However, Damien's voice significantly grew as he chanted, and faster and faster he chanted. At last, just before he ended his chant, he cried, "Arise, my slaves!"

The stone tablets all started glowing a gloomy purple colour.


	10. Chapter 9

**SECRETS**

Soro felt something strange within him. At first he thought he heard a high-pitched voice, and suddenly felt a sharp pain within his head, not enough to weaken him, but still enough to cause him to flinch. But they were gone as soon as he got over his senses. It started this morning and kept happening once in a while, and although brief, Soro felt as if each pain would mercilessly take his life if he wasn't careful enough.

His father's knee injury was more serious than he expected, to the extent that he had difficulties to even stand up, so Soro decided to strike his own problem off and put his father before him.

As Soro nursed him and did the chores for the day, he couldn't help but notice something a little...different about his father.

For one, his father no longer adhered to his usual routines for yesterday and today, ever since he got injured. It might have been the injury hindering his routine, but knowing his father, he would definitely not spend a whole afternoon and evening in his room, except for now, where he summoned his son to move him to outside the house for some fresh air.

Still, Soro shrugged it off, deciding that he would return back to normal after this day.

* * *

'Ughh, I'm getting sick and tired of this place! And I can't think of any ideas! Oh why does this have to happen to me...' Aranelle complained loudly.

'Calm down will you, Aranelle. Geez, making a fuzz isn't gonna help AT ALL,' said Aran aside.

'I don't care I don't care I don't care! I wanna go back to Rien and chill!'

'We need to think about this thoroughly, I'm sure there's a way to do it,' said Cygnus, leaving Aran and Aranelle to settle their dispute.

Mercedes decided to avoid the commotion and headed out of the house to get a breather. It was much more peaceful without Aranelle around.

Suddenly, Mercedes felt a pain in her head, at the same time hearing a high-pitched voice that seemed to have come out of nowhere, but both faded as soon as they came. However, it was at this brief moment she felt something different about her.

Feeling confident, she took out her bowguns and decided to try and fire a normal magic shot. Her bowguns roared to life as magic arrows appeared on them, albeit glowing a black colour. The bowguns responded as quickly as they armed themselves, firing the arrows toward the direction Mercedes pointed at.

"Unbelievable!" thought Mercedes. She tried to cast a greater spell and focused outwards. A few seconds later, a dark ethereal unicorn with black eyes dashed past Mercedes and towards the direction she focused at, violently shaking the trees as the unicorn phased through them. Her powers are back. They don't quite seem right, but still, her powers are back.

Mercedes rushed back into the house, excited and eager to tell the others the good news. She got back to see the others still trying to break Aran and Aranelle.

'Hey guys, look at this!' She focused her mind and something dark glowed on top of her, in the form of growing thorny vines. 'I think our powers are back.'

The others were struck in awe. Aranelle was the first to react. She enraged herself, attempting to fire up as if wanting to bring blizzard down to the room next. She felt something drained out of her, but still the buffing spell succeeded as she felt her inner fire of passion and bloodlust simmering within her. 'Oh. My. Goodness,' she huffed.

One by one tried to buff themselves up, and each of them worked. Excitement quickly filled the room as they started to fire their skills to test if all their powers were really back.

'Guys, something doesn't seem right. Don't you feel that our powers seem… dark for some reason?' Mercedes asked. However, no one seemed to take notice. Instead, they began testing out their more powerful skills. "H-Hey, don't you think Soro's gonna be mad if he thinks we're gonna tear down his house?" Mercedes quickly called out.

"Heck I don't care, look how awesome it is to get our powers back!" Aranelle squealed in delight as she leaped upwards while swinging her pole arm in the same direction. A pile of black crystals shot through the floor upwards and fade back in as quick as they formed.

"This is great! We can get back to Maple World after all!" said Kyrin excitedly, as she raised her guns and summoned a spiky black ship hovering above outside the house, which rained down artillery and laser shots that damaged the trees outside.

"Now we just need to find out how to go back," said Aranelle after sending a few dark wolves crashing through the room, "You can do that right, Cygnus?"

The others turned toward Cygnus, waiting for an answer. But Cygnus was facing away from the others, and did not react to Aranelle's question.

"Uh, right Cygnus?" Aranelle asked again.

A brief silence passed, and just when Aranelle was about to ask a third time, she turned her head. Her face bore gloominess. Dark pits with glowing purple colour were there instead of her eyes. A dark aura started reeking from her.

"Submit" was the only thing she said.

At that instance, all of them felt the same sharp pain and the high-pitched voice in the head.

* * *

 _Strange... This cannot be..._

 _The influence doesn't seem to work. The effects of the ritual are becoming noticeable on my adversaries, but not this innocent being. He somehow shrugs it off every time it gets to him._

 _Still, resistance is futile. He will still crumble if the power is strong enough. And if he ever finds out, it will only make it easier for me._

 _Meanwhile, the others have not noticed what's becoming of them. I must be careful of the influence and make sure they are unable to feel it. They will know if they do._

* * *

Soro tried to call out the newcomers he accommodated, but received no response. Thinking that they have perhaps gone out to explore, he decided to carry on with his cleaning duty.

Soro looked at the old wooden shelf as he swept through his father's bedroom, smiling as he admired his achievements throughout his youth, proud of being his son. His father bought the shelf right after the wooden house was built. The shelf, itself being rather large, held numerous plaques, trophies, old photos of his father in formal wear, and old wine bottles and car models that his father used to collect. At present, they were but memories of his former glory, complemented by the dust that started to collect outside the shelf. Soro set aside his broom and dustpan and came back with a feather duster, and started dusting the shelf.

As he dusted, something did not smell right. It smelled of rotten eggs, or even likely a dead corpse of an animal. Thinking it was from somewhere outside, Soro decided to check if there was something that needed to be disposed of. However, the smell got weaker instead as he went towards the front door and out of the house, and he could not even smell it after heading outside. Feeling strange, Soro headed back inside.

Soro tried to trace the smell and it led him back to the bedroom where he was dusting. And it came from behind the bookshelf. Deciding to investigate, Soro put down his duster and started moving the bookshelf. Moving it proved to be quite a challenge, but he still managed to shift it a notch just enough to let him peer behind the shelf. The pain came back again as he finished moving the shelf, but for only a short while.

However, as he peered to the back of the shelf, he was completely taken by surprise.

For behind the shelf was something he never knew had existed. An entrance to a tunnel. The stairway leading downwards was dimly lit only by the lights from the study, and it seemed to lead to nowhere. Oddly enough, the stairway seemed to be built out of stone instead of wood, which made up the whole of the house. It looked like an entrance to an ancient catacombs and Soro felt a shiver through his spine.

"Hmm, since when is there a basement in this house?" he thought.

Curiosity outweighing his fear, he searched for his torchlight and decided to venture downward into the abysmal passageway. Halfway through, he felt the pain in his head and the supersonic voice buzzing his ears, which, for some reason felt much more painful and the voice much louder.

Soro stepped lightly into the tunnel as he switched on the torchlight. It stretched rather far in that light from the outside no longer shone into the stairway. The passageway went on even after the stairs had ended. The stench got stronger the deeper he went, and as he walked on to the end of the passage, he found himself in a large chamber. The occasional pain worsened and it started to constantly pulsate within his head, but Soro found himself more curious about the secret place than to care about it.

He investigated the chamber and immediately felt a chill down his spine. At the centre to the chamber from the passage were four pillars standing in the position of a circle, each with a golden statue of a cobra entwined around it. At the top of each pillar held a faint glowing dark orb that seemed to be emanating black smoke out of it.

Within the circumference of the circle stood a very large cobra statue. It looked real even as a statue with its eyes and open mouth, with wings at the back which spanned widely across. Soro noticed a strange symbol carved at each side of its hood. In front of the large statue was a book stand, again with a cobra statue entwined around the pillar. An open book with a black cover rested on top of the book stand, and the pages looked very old from its colour. Like the dark orbs, the pages displayed glowed faintly and black smoke was reeking from them.

Just then, Soro found the source of the rotting stench. As he came closer to the book, he found someone lying just in front of the book stand. He tried to feel his pulse but none could be felt. The body felt abnormally cold too. From the faint light of the glow, Soro took a closer look at him. He was completely shaken as he recognised who that was. "F-Father..." he tried to call out.

"Hello," the sound of an old man came from behind Soro. He turned his head around. It was his father. Or was it?

"F-Father? H-Have you gotten better?" Soro asked. At that instance he finished his question, he felt the sharp pain again. Something was definitely wrong. He looked towards his 'father's' knees and to his surprise, it looked as if nothing had happened.

"I am more than fine, thank you very much," the old man replied, surprising Soro completely. "So I see that you have found out the secret even though I managed to hide it pretty well."

"Father…..no, you are not my father! What the heck is this? W-Why do I not know of this?" Soro asked. Fear and suspicion rose within him.

"This, as you can see, is my lab, created purely out of magic without being found out, thanks to the convenient disguise. The ritual you see here would be the foundation to spread darkness and corruption to the whole world, and with this corruption my master would be able to extend his reign to your world," the man replied in a cold voice.

Feeling even more absurd, Soro raised his voice, "Just who are you, anyway?"

"I see you are smart enough to question my identity. Very well then." As he finished his speech, a dark glowing aura slowly revolved around him as his figure and face started to deform. As the aura slowly faded and another figure started to form, it was no longer his father standing in front of Soro.

"You... Arkarium!" Soro gasped in realisation, for he had seen him before in MapleStory.

"So you recognised me as well. I have killed your father in order to take his form, which is why you saw me as your father. Do you understand my motives more now that you know who I am?" Arkarium asked as his black staff started materialising in one of his hand, and a flaming skull in the other. Behind him, a large black and menacing cobra appeared out of nowhere, staring at Soro with yellow glowing eyes and fangs wide open. Soro turned his head round and noticed that the large cobra statue was gone from the pedestal.

"W-Why? Why are you letting me know all about this?" Fear had completely overcome Soro and his voice came out shaky.

"I am letting you know all of this because you will soon become one of us," Arkarium promptly said. "And as you are a rather persistent fellow I will have assistance in completing my task, and I shall conduct this myself. Cygnus, Mercedes, Aran, Aranelle, Kyrin,"

As Arkarium said, the five of the appeared from the passage. They were no different from when Soro first saw them, but each of them bore a ghastly aura and had darkness reeking from their eyes in a glow.

"Hold him down for me. I shall personally finish this," Arkarium finished his orders.

"Yes, master," came five emotionless voices. Before long, Mercedes raised one of her bowguns and fired something darkly luminous toward Soro. It expanded itself into what looked like dark, glowing chains, and Soro found himself overcome by a strong force of submission, forcing him to kneel. He struggled as he tried to break free of the chains.

It worked for a moment, to their surprises. Soro managed to somehow loosen the chains and stood up a little bit, but it was not for long. Several ethereal felhounds rushed out of Aran's pole arm toward Soro as he waved his weapon with both hands, crashing into Soro and making him wince in kneeling position again as he felt an excruciating pain as if struck by sharp claws. Still, he grunted and yelled trying to gather some strength to break free. The others continuously attacked him, each skill severely lethal. And although he managed to resist the attacks, Soro could feel his sanity slowly slipping away from his mind. Eventually, one look into Cygnus's eyes was what it needed to silence him and break his will. Soro gasped in fear and rage as Arkarium slowly walked toward him.

"I'm impressed. You have just managed to prove yourself worthy and well for the Dark Lord. For that, I shall personally promote you to the ranks of us, the commanders," Arkarium said as he slowly walked over toward Soro. He reached both hands and cupped Soro's skull. As the orbs and the book glowed even more bright, Soro felt the pain and heard the voice again, except this time the excruciating pain and the high-pitched voice went on without fading. Soro jerked about in pain, but Arkarium's grip only became stronger. He could not end the suffering. It felt as if he could fall to submission the moment he was unaware of the torment.

Then it became bright. So bright that it was blinding. At that very moment, Soro felt the world becoming black and fell into unconsciousness.


	11. Chapter 10

**THE NIGHTMARE**

The kiss tasted so sweet. He did not know it could have felt so good. Is this what love truly is like?

Everything around him seemed a little radiant, but the radiance seemed warm and gentle. It glowed a soft magenta, as if a silky velvet brushed through his skin, and he could not help but marvel at the amazing girl in front of him.

"I love you so much, Kyle-oppa..." came Jyu Min's coaxing voice, "Don't you think with our love, we can take on anything on this world, even _taking over_ it?"

Kyle felt dazed, still deeply attracted by her voice. She was right. They could take on the whole world. They could get married and live on a happy life. The world was theirs to claim. At that instant moment, Kyle felt his powers rising within him. He began to marvel at this power, the dark aura that started to emanate from him. He, as the legendary kaiser, could easily take over this world and live with his lover forever.

"Yes, Kyle-oppa, I've always believed in the power of love, it's so strong, so overwhelming, I don't even get why there are still divorces in this world, love is such a strong force..."

Jyu Min smiled as he saw the kaiser in front of him rise up. It had worked, and the transformation was complete. In no time at all, the kaiser appeared in front of her in his true form, the black dragon warrior with his legendary powers.

The kaiser was back.

* * *

Tear barely pushed through the crowds and squeezed into the premise of the theme park when it happened.

A faint magenta light could be seen glowing at the background, rather insignificant that it did not catch the attention of any other person, but Tear could see it clearly. It had already begun. She needed to hurry up.

She continued to run towards the place, passing through yet a few more crowds. Just then, Tear heard screaming from the direction she was headed. It can't be good, thought Tear.

It became more apparent. As Tear got closer to her destination, she started to notice the wreckage of a few rides, and hordes of people barging and rushing out of the area, screaming escape. Then casualties appeared, some badly injured and collapsed on the ground, too weak to proceed on, and some already unconscious. The conditions of the casualties seemed to be more severe the nearer she was to the place, and the wreckage of rides and stalls more serious. And then Tear saw what was causing the chaos.

It was the army of skeletons under Hilla's command. And the spectres that were under Magnus's. They cried bloody havoc as they wrecked the place, trampling the area and slashing at everything they find. Some of the skeletons started attacking Tear as they saw her, but she merely dodged as she ran onward. She was more worried about Kyle than anything else, and she was determined to find out the truth.

At last, she arrived at the place. The shores of the swan boat ride. What was a river of clear water had turned into a river of blood, exactly the one in Tear's nightmare. She knew exactly happens next. All would be done when the swan boat reach the shores. And it was exactly there, already in a state of disrepair. And right next to the boat stood someone. Someone very familiar to her, especially with her red hair and cunning, devilish beauty. Hilla. She slowly walked inwards land, folding her arms and looked around as if admiring her own work. So she did come to this world, Tear thought. The nightmare she had had turned real.

* * *

 _Tear was on the boat sitting with Kyle, exchanging sweet talks with one another. It was so sweet, and Tear actually felt very happy._

 _However, things started going wrong when she kissed Kyle. She felt like she was no longer herself, and in her mind, something told her a certain plan was working, and she couldn't help smiling to herself. As the magenta velvet drew over Kyle, Tear was certain it was already doing its course, but she still continued to utter sweet talks to make the transition go more smoothly. Tear didn't want to do this, her conscience wanted her to stop. But strangely, her conscience did nothing to stop her, almost as if the conscience was not intact with herself._

 _As Kyle regained his powers, yet in his corrupted self, Tear started to smirk. The boat ride was about to reach its end._

 _As it slowly reached ashore, Tear saw the amount of people waiting for their turns. She felt annoyed. She didn't like it. She turned towards her lover and coaxed him into driving them away._

 _And drive them away he did. At one swing of his sword, the wave that emerged from the slash charged towards land. Bloodshed and wreckage were immediately visible. And people started screaming and running. He summoned three swords above him, and at his gesture, they started flying and charging towards land as if having their own minds, wrecking the place even more._

 _At that time, Tear knew it was her turn. And so she started chanting words that apparently came to her mind, uncontrollably. Moments later, from the ground emerged purple figures. There were so many of them. And yet she continued chanting. One by one, the purple figures started materialising into their true forms. Some turned into skeletons, others into spectres._

 _When she had finished, the skeletons and spectres had already started their attack. And she smiled to herself. That wasn't her own smile; in fact, Tear was actually horrified, but she had no control over herself._

And that was when she woke up.

* * *

Tear tried to find a place to hide. She had known the truth. She tried to test her powers once again, but still they did not work. She knew she couldn't confront Hilla if she was in a powerless state – Hilla could have easily finished her. Nonetheless, she had to quickly find a way to save Kyle and drive Hilla and his minions away.

Amidst the chaos that occurred, Tear could see someone above where Hilla was standing. It was Kyle, in his dragon warrior form! He had regained his powers, transformed into the kaiser, and held firmly to his sword, wings flapping gracefully. He seemed like he was about to confront Hilla. But it did not happen.

No. That was definitely not the Kyle she knew.

Just then, the Kaiser turned its head towards Tear. Without hesitation, he swung his sword at her direction, creating a wave that charged straight at her. Tear dodged to her side, barely missing the wave.

"Kyle," Feeling helpless and desperate, Tear tried to call him out, "it's me, Tear!"

Kyle seemed to ignore him and continued his attack as Tear dodged his blades. She felt like exhaustion was already taking over her, and she started to get less agile. Finally, one of the attacks hit her and she fell to the floor, weak and helpless.

Below, Hilla only smirked as she slowly walked over to Tear. She shook her head as if to pity her.

"Poor, poor angelic buster, the idol of the battlefield, now weak and helpless, betrayed by her closest ally..."

"Hilla, you...how could you..." Tear managed to blurt out with her remaining strength.

"You know, idol, I tell you what, I'll take this title of yours because it's not meant for the weak and stupid, and your life may be spared, well, depends on whether or not you'll be killed by one of my minions. Yes, from now on, I hereby proclaim myself idol of the battlefield.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to proceed with my unfinished businesses, so I'll just see you around~ Now where's that no-good man Magnus..." Hilla said before she walked away from her.

* * *

Saeg Laeng sat at the bench near the entrance. He watched as everything went down, and continued watching even when crowds of people were screaming and running out and away from the theme park.

"So she really went and done it..." Saeg Laeng muttered. He took off the hat that was atop of him and let his horns free. Nobody noticed him as they were all busy escaping for their lives.

"In all honesty, I would never expect it to go like this..." he muttered to himself again. He had already done his part and drew the kaiser away from the idol. But somehow, he did not feel like continuing his task and help Hilla out. After all, his spectres had already been used. He didn't have to help anymore.

And so, he lay down on the bench, while people were still screaming and evacuating the park. He decided to take a nap, something he thought he had earned himself.


	12. Chapter 11

**JUST LIKE OLD TIMES**

 _"Hey, look!" a girl in dark robes pointed. "Do you see what I see, Lotus?"_

 _Beside, a man donned in a similar set of clothing frowned. "Hmm, we've found what we came for, sis," he said as both of them continued to peek at a man in fanciful clothing. He did not look quite as gentlemanly as his clothes. Rather, he was speeding along the walkway rather recklessly, bumping into passers-by without even a word of apology._

 _"Keep yourself concealed, Orchid. We best not let ourselves known and get into trouble later."_

 _As he said, the man with fanciful clothing ran past their table, as if running away from something. Soon after, two other men in blue uniforms ran past them toward his direction._

 _"What do we do, brother?" asked Orchid._

 _"Hehe, I've got an idea! This is going to be fun, I promise," said Lotus, smirking._

 _"Oh, something up your sleeves, Lotus?" Orchid asked, interested._

 _Lotus turned towards Phantom, who was still in his sight. He stood up and told Orchid, "Come on, follow me! I know what exactly both of us can do."_

 _The two of them stood up from the table and left the cafe they were at and started to track down Phantom. Not long after, they noticed that the two men in blue uniforms had lost sight of Phantom, still the two of them knew where Phantom was._

 _"This is perfect! Come on, sis!" Lotus called to Orchid._

 _Orchid hurried herself following Lotus, who then started to cast a spell, emanating a bright purple aura from his arm._

 _"There. Remember this? That way we can do anything we want but people around won't notice," said Lotus._

 _"Oh, right! I totally forgot how exciting this is!" Orchid squealed in excitement. She then ran toward a random passer-by and started making faces at him, but he kept on walking as if nothing had happened around him._

 _"This is awesome!" Orchid yelled and started to play around. In less than a minute, a passer-by tripped and fell, another tasted something strange in his ice cream, and another thought someone was calling him._

 _"Orchid, I know you like to play around, but this is not the time for fun and games yet! Come with me!" Lotus called out seeing all the trouble Orchid had caused._

 _Orchid pouted and followed Lotus again. They came to the place where the two uniformed men were still frantically searching for Phantom._

 _Lotus grabbed one of them and immediately caught on to his neck. The man screamed and thrashed wildly of pain, but nobody around them took notice. A curious glow formed around them. Soon, the man stopped thrashing and fell unconscious, and Lotus was no longer donned in his robes, but instead the uniform the man was wearing. Lotus slowly laid the body down, and waved his hand over him. Soon after, the body vanished completely._

 _"Do what I did with the other one," Lotus said, pointing to Orchid toward the other uniformed man, unaware of his missing companion and still busy searching for Phantom._

 _Orchid took heed and did the same toward him, soon donning the same uniform as her brother._

 _"That's that. So what now?"_

 _"We pretend we are doing our duties and wait until the next day. Tomorrow, we're gonna pay someone a visit," said Lotus as he dispelled the oblivious spell around them._

 _"Ehehe, alright, let's do it!" said Orchid anticipating the fun she will get in torturing her would-be victims._

* * *

Phantom's dream still echoed in his mind. He caught Aria's message, but what was she trying to say to him?

He got up and checked the clock that was hanging right on top of him. The room was dark, but he could barely see with enough lights shining from the outside through the window. 2:47, it read. He had no clue as to when the sun will rise again, and so he decided to stay awake, trying to decipher what Aria was trying to convey to him.

His throat felt dry, prompting him to search for water. Nami had said they could get water from the pitcher at the small kitchen. He looked around and saw Luminous sleeping at another corner of the room. Checky was nowhere to be found, though.

He exited the room trying to take some water. As he opened the door, his attention was caught by the sound of a soft conversation. Faint lights were coming from the living room. Instinct immediately told him to make his presence unknown.

He slipped to a corner of the corridor where he would not be easily seen from the living room, as he tried to listen more closely. It was Checky's and Nami's voices. How long had they been in their conversation?

"So how did you even learn to make all these? I never knew how they could even, you know, without magic?" came Checky's voice.

"Aww, I thought I told you about that last time, I went to a tailoring school because I was so into cosplay and stuff. That basic bowman costume wasn't too hard for me," Nami's reply followed. "How about you? I haven't heard from you in, like, ages. How did it go before coming here?"

"Pretty well, but we've gotta listen to that stupid Claudine, though. I told her that my mechs are all pretty much still in upgrading process and my mechanics are all unready for the battle! She still made me do it..." Checky gave a sigh.

"That's okay, Checky. Hey, on the bright side, you're still all right now, and I get to see you again! How good is that?"

"Yeah, that is one thing but..."

"Oh hey, what about that thing you have? That bear head? Still works as usual?"

"I dunno, I haven't been using it for other purposes other than that. Not sure if it still works now..."

Phantom got even more curious and decided to peek. As he did, he saw Nami sitting on one sofa, and Checky on another. The bear head was with Checky. Both were unaware of Phantom's presence as Checky took the mascot head.

"Hmm, what do you want it to be?" Checky asked.

"Uhhhhh...oh, oh, one of those Cash cards! With actual redemption code on them!"

As she spoke, the bear head suddenly shapeshifted, turning into a piece of card almost instantly and landing on Checky's hands after it did. Phantom was taken by surprise.

"I think we know the answer," said Checky as Nami snatched the card from him. She turned it over and took a look.

"Aww, I can't even read the code! It's not even alphanumeric!"

"Too bad for you. But well, good to know it still works." Concealed around the corner, Phantom was bewildered. Something impossible, even almost so in the Maple World, just happened right in front of their eyes yet Checky and Nami didn't even seem surprised. What was going on?

"Never mind then...by the way, I have so many things to ask you about!" Nami sounded excited as she said so, "Last you came here you went so suddenly that so many questions went unanswered. I hope I could get them from you now that you're here."

"Go ahead. I'm not running away."

"Where did you even find this thing? And how did you even end up here?"

"Well, I actually found it while I was digging near the Verne Mines with my friends, you know being small kids we were, very innocent and stuff. And then, just when I dug deep enough, I got this thing stuck in the ground I found so interesting, I just had to dig it out. Took it in my hands, and was just thinking about what it looked like, and well, it simply...transformed into that thing."

"What did you think of?"

"Some kind of gem or jewel, the one common in the Mines, what's it called...the rue ore, yes. So yeah I was thinking that thing looked like a rue ore and well, it turned into one. I thought that it was too incredible and I decided to keep this a secret, so I turned it into something small enough and kept it in my pocket.

"The only person who knew about this was me, and I'd always play with it whenever I get my quality time alone at night, but things happened after this. I had strange dreams."

"Strange dreams?"

"Yeah, kept dreaming about a certain place, seemed like a temple of some sort. There's some girl I don't know just floating there and holding an hourglass..."

"Rhinne, you mean?" Nami interrupted.

"Is that what she's called? Well anyway that girl was beckoning me to come to the temple. Went on for some 10 years, every night the same dream. So I went there because that dream's kinda annoying me. And then, things happened, some kind of portal formed, walked through it, and I ended up here..."

"In front of me?"

"In front of you. You looked so surprised back then."

"I was! You came crashing down in the middle of the night out of nowhere in front of my apartment!"

Phantom listened intently, finally understanding how they had met before.

"So about your career last time, how'd it go?" Nami asked again.

"I'll be honest with you, I was surprised when they told me to perform at a certain circus coming to town, think they saw that nice bear suit you got for me. I got invited by a lot of circuses to perform with that suit. And I did pretty well, I actually got famous in this field, TV and stuff, but I was so friggin' busy. I love my job, though."

"That happens when you get famous, good thing you're happy with your job. I saw you a lot in newspapers and on TV too. And dayum you sure know how to entertain. To think that bear head went too good with that bear suit, it's just perfect entertainment material!"

"Well, if you think so, I really couldn't thank you enough. That bear suit was neato, and I probably have to give credit to my own imagination of the ideal bear head as well. So as I was saying, I was doing well, done entertaining people that day and well, I forgot when it was, but sometime later I got those dreams again. The same dream that got me crossing into this world, except the girl was asking me to go back."

Phantom lit up hearing Checky's words. This could very well be the cue for them to go back.

"What place is that?"

"I forgot. But at that time I didn't quite remember what place I flew to before that dream got me."

Phantom sighed. He was this close to finding out the way to go back.

"The only thing I remembered was that that was my last flight in this world before the dream. All that and I followed the orders, went to some place I don't even know. Place wasn't heavily guarded, luckily. I sneaked in easily into a strange room, the portal formed again, and back I go."

"No wonder I haven't heard from you since. You actually went back."

"Mmhm. Sorry I couldn't inform you sooner."

"It's alright. I was just thinking how funny it was, your formal career made you end up giving balloons while stuffed in that bear suit, and you taking up electrical engineering here only to end up building mechs there, and they're not even that strong? My my, sucks to be you!"

"Hey, not my fault they don't appreciate technology and performing arts! Those kids are really painful to deal with. Especially that Ulrika girl."

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to tell me. I've played enough to know what happened," Nami chuckled.

Phantom couldn't believe how close Checky and Nami were as friends as he slipped back to the room, deciding against taking a drink. Aria's words still lingered in his head, forming a poem of some sort, but the conversation between the two of them should not be taken lightly, too.

* * *

Phantom borrowed Nami's note and pen and hurriedly scribbled down what he heard from Aria's mouth just as the others were having their breakfast. Strangely, his mind could remember it rather clearly, if not perfectly.

When he was quite sure he jotted down all of it, he brought it to the table, where he studied the poem as he chugged down some toast, ignoring any ongoing conversations at the table.

"What are you reading there?" asked Luminous, feeling curious. He scooted over to Phantom who was sitting beside him, peering toward his note.

Phantom did not react, but merely continued staring at his note while chugging another piece of toast down his mouth. He did not even flinch as Luminous got behind him to read whatever was on that note as well.

"What exactly is this?" Luminous asked again, but still Phantom was too concentrated. In his mind was the mind-boggling tangle between words that he himself had volunteered to take the responsibility to untangle them. It didn't really seem to make sense, even if he tried hard to read between the lines.

"What could she be trying to tell me?" thought Phantom over and over again. As romantic and poetic a person he was, this poem seemed too complicated and sophisticated for him. Nevertheless, he continued trying to decipher its meaning. Luminous went back to his breakfast as he couldn't quite stand literature.

Phantom was startled as he heard someone knocking on the front door. He raised his head to the direction of the door as Nami stood and got to the door.

When Nami opened the door, she seemed surprised. It was a policeman and a policewoman.

"Hello, we're currently looking for this guy," said the policeman as he produced a picture. It showed a portrait of someone rather familiar. But it wasn't a typical photo that had been taken from crime scenes or a passport-sized photo. Rather, it seemed to be painted on, like a work of art. "Do you happen to know him?"

Nami studied it as the first thought hit her mind. It was Phantom's face.

She turned her head as she glanced towards Phantom, hesitant whether to give him away or not. Did Phantom went out to stir some trouble?

"Ah, I see him from here. Very nice, please tell him to come over, we would like to see him to...interrogate him," said the male police without waiting for Nami's reply, as he peered in and saw Phantom sitting at the dining table.

Phantom was hesistant. Partly because he did not want to be interrogated. He already had enough of that in the Maple World, even though he got away with it every single time. And partly because the two cops at the door were not the ones after him.

"I'm not coming over," said Phantom as he went back to study the poem.

"This is an order. You are required to be here immediately now," the male police officer raised his voice.

Phantom, feeling annoyed, stood up and said, "I'm going back to the room."

However, just as Phantom was about to head back to the bedroom, he felt himself unconsciously walking to both cops instead, as if his mind and body are not one. He came to the door and noticed the female police officer had one of her hands slightly up, and it seemed to bear a strange aura.

The policeman pulled out a folded piece of document from his pocket, opened it up and started to read.

"Case Number 1337, 8th of February 20xx, Name of suspect: Phantom; Crimes involved: Grand Larceny; on the 7th of February, Phantom was suspected to have stolen money and credit of up to 3000 dollars from pickpocketing last afternoon, approximately 1.30pm. Afterwards, he went into a toilet in Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, disposed of wallets and purses and important documents, keeping only cash to himself."

Phantom began to wonder how the details could be so intricate even though he was sure his moves went unnoticed. He tried to walk away, sit down in defiance, and even attacking the cops, but something was keeping him in place, and he could do nothing else other than staring at the two police officers.

"Permission has been granted by the High Court of the Master to deliver a swift verdict without trial, and the right to execute punishment on the suspect on the spot."

The four of them became more and more confused as the content of what seemed to be a police report became more and more absurd. For as long as Nami knew, this is not how it works in Singapore. Who the hell are these two 'police officers' then?

"Your verdict shall be delivered here as mentioned in this report, and for the crime of larceny, I hereby sentence you to death. And we shall now carry the execution ourselves on the spot," said the male police.

He walked towards Phantom, who tried stepping back but somehow couldn't move a muscle. He raised a hand and wrapped it onto his forehead. Phantom tried to budge and break contact with him, but to no avail. A few moments later, the police's hand glowed slightly, a curiously purple-coloured smoke was seen rising from above Phantom's head, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Luminous and Checky were still terrified by what they saw when the male police continued, "The two of you, who have been accomplices to the accused, shall be sentenced to death as well."

"W-wait! We absolutely don't have anything to..." Checky yelled out.

"Your turn, Orchid," the male police turned to his partner without even listening to Checky.

"Gladly!" said the female cop as she raised both her hands. Both her hands slowly glowed.

"You! You're..." Luminous suddenly came to realisation when he was cut off. He could no longer speak as he and Checky felt a constriction around their necks.

Nami stared blankly as she saw what both cops did to her three guests. Within a short period of time, Checky and Luminous held on to their throats, gasping and wheezing for air. A few moments later, they both collapsed.

"And you, unfortunately we cannot spare any accomplices to the criminal, which you proved yourself to be one for accommodating him. My apologies, lady," said the male police as he raised a hand towards Nami, his hand slowly glowing as their hands formed a choking position yet again.

Nami was already horrified as she saw what was coming for her. Just a few seconds later was her own impending doom, and she stood stunned, blankness clouding up her mind. She began to feel pressure around her neck sinking in.

At that slight moment, the clock in the living room started turning backwards.

* * *

 **A/N:** _When the first version of this chapter came out, Orchid was made permanently traumatised after the incident of the Evolving System, behaving like a child whenever she was accompanied by her brother Lotus. Unfortunately, it was also before the Black Heaven content update, which revealed those two as formerly twin spirits and also revealed the aftermath of the incident. I decided that I am not going to stray too much off course and so Orchid is made normal again. However, in contrast to the story line at Black Heaven, Lotus's loyalty (and hence Orchid's too) in this story remained with the Black Mage. As such, they will be part of the antagonists that appear in this story._


	13. Chapter 12

**SUSPICIONS**

"Last night, the small town of Kintai in Kato Prefecture was completely pillaged by fire last night, but luckily everyone survived with only 6 injured. The fire started for about 45 minutes before the fire fighters reached the town and took about 4 hours to completely extinguish the flames. The loss of goods to the flames amounted approximately up to 4 billion yen as most of the buildings and shophouses have been completely desecrated, sparing nothing within it. The root cause of the fire is still being investigated, but the residents reportedly saw evil ghost spirits invading the town en masse and ravaged the town..."

Ruriko stared at the morning local news, bewildered by what she saw. The place the shrine – and the whole area – resides was just at the outskirts of Kintai Town, and she could not believe that a town could be razed to such a wasteland overnight.

Her phone rang just then. She picked it up. It was Chisato, her sister.

"Ohayou, Chisa-nee."

"Ruriko! I saw the news about Kintai Town being burned down! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. The shrine's fine too."

"Phew, thank goodness! I thought that fire might have spread to your place too. You should have seen how big that fire was!"

"I know. I saw it in the news just now. I just hope they'll be fine. I'll go to the shrine to pray for the people's well-being."

They talked on for a few minutes after that, before Chisato hung up due to household matters. As Ruriko put down her phone, someone walked towards the living room. It was the two newcomers, Daisuke and Toruki.

"Ohayou Kamamura-san, Hayakawa-san. Had a good night's sleep?" greeted Ruriko.

"Ohayou, Inoue-san. Yeah we did, thank you very much. Kudos to the environment here, wish I could have this back at my home," said Daisuke.

"We thought we should familiarise ourselves with the environment here so we've just decided to stroll around this area for a bit. Should be able to return by noon or something," Toruki said.

"Hey if you'd like to, I could personally give you a tour around here, you know, to show you around," Ruriko offered her help.

"Never mind the trouble, we prefer to walk around and discover things ourselves, but thanks for the help," Daisuke replied, humbly rejecting her offer.

"Alright then, just don't get lost in the woods!" Ruriko reminded before the two men headed off.

Shortly after sending them off, Ruriko went to don her green hakama, and set off for the shrine with a broom in her hand.

* * *

"Whaddya propose we do next?" asked Claudine.

"Hard to decide. The best we could do is to adapt to this environment, and start making full use of ourselves without magic. We'd find our chance to return eventually," replied Neinheart.

"Agreed. We have no choice otherwise," Athena said in support.

"Speaking about adapting, Irena might have some problems with this," said Neinheart again, as all heads turned to Irena, whose face turned gloomy at the thought of living in this world.

"It's not that, I just don't like those two other guys who came here. They... sigh, I just feel very uneasy with them around. I-I really have a bad feeling about this," Irena complained.

"Hey guys, you might wanna check this out," Xenon, who picked up an English newspaper out of curiosity, called out.

The others went to Xenon and read the small article that was squeezed among other miscellaneous articles.

"Kintai Town Ravaged by Flames..." Neinheart read out the title.

They continued to read the article, getting curious as they read more and more of it.

"Invasion of ghosts... oh my, that must have been awful," said Irena.

"It's still not confirmed, though, even though it says many had witnessed it," Xenon clarified, "Wait, are ghosts and spirits are supposed to exist here?"

"Hmm, based on the strict rules of the reality, I don't think so," Athena replied.

"Kintai Town... It's the town that's just near our place! Ruriko said this place is just at its outskirts!" Claudine exclaimed in realisation.

"Should we go and help them?" asked Irena.

"Not necessary. It happened last night while we're all sleeping and they have already been evacuated now. Plus, we couldn't really help them the way we used to help other people," reminded Xenon.

"Neinheart, whaddya think?" asked Athena.

Neinheart remained silent. He had sunk to his thoughts while the others were conversing, trying to make links between all that happened. After a while, he finally spoke.

"I-I can't shake the feeling that this place has something to do with that."

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" asked Athena again in confusion.

"We're near a shrine, and not just a shrine, but a whole long corridor of tombstones. I assume the spirits might have been summoned from here to destroy the town. You're right to suspect them, Irena."

"Who?" Irena asked.

"Those two. I'm not sure about it, but they could be behind this."

"Well, in any case, let's not be hasty about conclusions. If those two are strong enough to conjure spirits we would not be able to defeat them like this, too," Athena advised, "But well, if what you say is true, we shouldn't let our guard down either."

"I'll stay up for the night. If anything happens I'd call everyone up," Neinheart volunteered.

* * *

Neinheart tried to keep himself awake as everyone else were asleep. The environment of the mountainous area was too calm and quiet to fall asleep to, and more often than not Neinheart found himself dozing off to the gentle moon light and the cricking of crickets.

As he tried to fight off the sleep that was trying to invade his mind, he heard a clear sound differing from the surroundings. He tried to listen more carefully. Footsteps. They went on within the house outside the room they were in. After that, it was the sound of sliding doors. The sound of footsteps continued thereafter until they eventually trailed off.

He mustered all his will to get himself awake and stood up. He went and check the guest room that housed the two other guests and to his expectation, it was empty. He ran back to the room, waking everyone up.

"They went towards the shrine, you say?" asked Ruriko.

"Yes. I heard the footsteps going in that direction."

"Let's not waste any time, then. We must get to the shrine immediately," Athena declared, to the others' agreement.

They hurried to the shrine, trying to find out what was happening over there.

As they approached the shrine, they saw something they could not believe: hundreds of spirits have already risen from the shrine's entrance, and they are dashing out of the area, exiting the shrine out from the area.

"Oh no, we're too late!" Neinheart lamented.

They ran into the shrine, amidst the many spirits that were rushing out of it. As they came to the corridor where the tombstones reside, they saw spirits emerging out of the tombstones. Along the long hallway, they saw the two men, who were back-facing them as they arrived.

"What have you done?" Athena yelled out to them. As the two of them turned, all of them gasped in shock.

"Ahh, you've arrived just in time to see such a magnificent view!" Damien said. "I have just chanted a spell that released the imprisoned souls of the dead into the living, and their vengeance shall provoke them to haunt the people forever."

"Why are you doing this?" Athena yelled in anger.

"Have you not noticed? As soon as the dead take over this world, so too will the Dark Lord expand his territory! And we planned to make tombstones out of y'all, so that you, too, could contribute to the expansion of his influence!"

"Then we shall not allow you to do this!" Claudine yelled as she pulled out a pair of daggers and rushed towards them. She had them with her all the time, for whence her guns would break, such as when she crossed the portal.

The two commanders simply stood there. As she came nearer, Von Leon simply held out a hand. Claudine's advance was immediately halted as a barrier formed from his hand. As she was still striving to get a grip of herself, the others had already started to attack. They too, however, were not strong enough to break through their defenses as they had already lost their powers.

"My slaves," Damien called out as the crew was recovering, "your masters are in dire peril. Protect your masters at all costs!"

The spirits, which were originally rushing towards the shrine entrance, suddenly changed their course and launched themselves towards the heroes instead. Ruriko merely stood in horror as she saw how the spirits started to desecrate the heroes, who looked rather helpless but still struggled to fight on, while the two commanders merely laughed at how they were still trying.

"Ruriko, go... and find some help..." she heard Neinheart calling to her. Without wasting time, she rushed out of the shrine and down the hill, heading towards the next nearest town. It was some kilometres away, but nevertheless she still ran, determined to find any help she could. They were almost no traffic at the road leading towards the shrine, and as such she could not hitchhike even if she desperately wanted to. At last, she managed to arrive, panting and wheezing. However, what she saw was an even more tragic scene.

The whole town had already went into flames, suffering the same fate as Kintai Town last night. The town was plagued by evil spirits, and people were messily evacuating the town, while help has yet to arrive. She could only stare as her last beacon of hope faded into nothingness. The next nearest town was already out of the prefecture.

Ruriko went back to the shrine, exhausted from all the running. All nearby towns have suffered the same fate as Kintai Town, and the crew were all still fighting the evil spirits. They were clearly on the losing side, as they had been deprived of their powers to begin with. Out of desperation, she walked back into the shrine, now a place of grim and chaos, trying to find any last hope available.

She walked through the shrine courtyard and went straight to the main hall, where the grand statue of the hayato still stood proud. She knelt down in front of the statue, palm-to-palm, praying in vain that all that happened would stop. Tears started to leak from her eyes as she did so, considering how much had happened in her place and yet she could do nothing to stop that.

As one drop of her tears started dripping to the ground, something remarkable happened. A green streak of light jolted from where her tear had dripped and transmitted through the ground at light speed before hitting the base of the statue. As it hit, the whole statue temporarily lit itself in green before it ceased to glow. Immediately after, the whole statue started to rumble, as it appeared to be straightening itself. The hayato is coming back to life.

Ruriko watched in awe as it all unfolded before her. The hayato walked down from his base, raising his katana. He turned backwards and stepped into the long hallway, surveying his surroundings. Several spirits noticed his presence and started dashing towards him. He did not fret even a bit. As they came closer and closer, he swung his katana, which radiantly shone as it collided with the spirits, immediately dissipating the attacking spirits.

"What's this? How could this be? This is not supposed to happen!" she heard Damien exclaiming in surprise, "My slaves, attack him! Spare no mercy!"

Was that a hallucination that would occur before death? Ruriko was not sure of that. She collapsed on the floor as she watched the hayato battling against the spirits.


	14. Chapter 13

**THE AWAKENING**

Nami studied the area around her. It was dark – black, to be accurate, but still Nami could see in this darkness. Clearly. She had, for some reason, ended up here after all that happened back at the apartment.

She looked around. Strangely enough, she saw two other people beside her. She did not know who they were and why they were here too, but something told her they were here for the same reason as her.

The other two were looking around as well. They looked as if they were unfamiliar of this place they were in. In fact, nobody would find the place familiar, if at all. This place they were in looked like a place of complete solitude, a realm that existed in itself, and complete devoid of anything at all. The blackness they were in seemed to stretch on forever.

Soro had the same thoughts as well as he studied his surroundings and saw the other two, and so had Ruriko. How did they end up here? Was this a dream? Why were they brought here? And more importantly, how were they going to get out?

Just then, something seemed to glow from a distance. A signal. As if by instinct, they started to walk towards it. The glow became brighter as they came closer to it. At last, when they came to the source of the light, they found that the light actually shone from someone oddly familiar to them.

It was a figure of a young woman, donned in somewhat a Greek goddess clothing. Her hair was unbelievably long – it seemed longer than her height. She was floating in mid-air, holding a huge hourglass in her hand, eyes closed, a serene look on her face. The three of them recognised her. It was Rhinne.

"I have been expecting you three," she started to speak when they approached her, who slowly opened her eyes.

"H-hi, you are... Rhinne, are you not?" Soro spoke up.

"The one and only," the woman replied.

"Rhinne... Goddess, where are we now?" Soro spoke up.

"Do not worry, for you will be back at your own world soon enough. It's a good thing that the three of you arrived just in time,"said Rhinne.

The three of them looked at one another, bewildered. Their curiosity grew as they turned back towards Rhinne.

"By now I am sure you have a lot of questions regarding what happened to you these two days. Go on, if you want to clarify with me," Rhinne assured.

"Wait, Rhinne...I mean Goddess, aren't you supposed to be at the Time Temple now?" asked Ruriko.

"Sadly, no. If you have known what happened to me, I was too weak to fend off the Black Mage's commanders and hence was sealed away by their curse. You may be thinking that while Commander Will worked with Arkarium to seal me in the Dream World, this is actually the place where I am now, where I ended up in, and I can't escape from here because the curse is still in place. My status and powers, however, allow me to still have some influence in the Maple World in some way or another. I have created a successor for myself should I no longer be the transcendent of time of the Maple World."

The three of them listened as she spoke, contemplating whether to tell her about what actually happened to her so-called 'successor'. Nevertheless, they abstained.

"There have been five heroes from the Maple World who crashed near my place. How did they get to our world?" asked Ruriko. Nami and Soro nodded in agreement, awaiting answers from Rhinne.

"The answer lies in the relationship between the Maple World and your world - the world of which we call 'the reality'. Your world is created long before the Overseers of our realm created the Maple World and Grandis. Back then, the Overseers were marveled by the creations of the Gods of reality, and so with their help, the Overseers managed to create portals that allowed access from the Maple World to the reality and back, in order to reference from your world. Now, to prevent misuse, the portal required an immense power beyond imagination in order to open, and in the Maple World, only the transcendents could have enough power to do so.

"The day before the heroes were banished to your world, Empress Cygnus rallied the Maple Forces for an assault towards the Time Temple, specifically wanting to end the Black Mage once and for all. However, they have yet again underestimated him, and he created a portal - that portal - to banish them into your world. Fortunately, during the period when the portal was created, I channeled my powers from here so that they can be directed to the three of you. However, there are some who are not with either of you."

"Why have you summoned us here? And why would you send them to us?" asked Nami, "I mean, why us? There are so many people in our world, why not the others?"

"The answer" Rhinne answered without hesitation, "lies with the true identities of the three of you. And I was not the one who summoned you here. It was your powers that did, the powers that were summoned out of desperation."

"Powers?" Soro, Nami and Ruriko stared at each other, bewildered by Rhinne's reply.

"Yes, powers. You are the ones who have been chosen, and hence the powers are bestowed upon you. This place you're in now is the void of limbo. During the time when the Overseers created the Maple World and Grandis, they have had differences with the Gods of reality on what should exist in a world. As such, if something considered illogical would attempt to cross over to the reality from the Maple World, this is where they would end up instead. If you have noticed that the heroes seemed to have lost their powers after coming to your world, this is also the reason. The three of you had awoken your powers, causing you to be warped into this realm as well since they violate the laws of reality. As for me, I will be here too until the curse is lifted, as I've mentioned."

As Rhinne spoke, something seemed to emerge behind her. In fact, it seemed more of several things than something. Shortly after, they revealed themselves behind Rhinne, standing in a line. The three of them recognised them to be associated with the ones hosting them, except that they were the mythical creatures which wouldn't have existed in the reality. Aran's companion spirit Maha, Xenon's companion android Roo-D, the spirit of the Angelic Buster Eskalade, the spirit of the former Kaiser, and Mercedes's guardian spirit Ishtar. Even the elder dragon Afrien was there too.

"Due to the restraint of powers, the companions of the heroes ended up here instead of being with their masters. Perhaps now you would like to introduce yourselves to them, as well as to each other, you would need to work with one another from here on."

They heeded Rhinne's words and introduced themselves to one another, and to the others in the void as well.

Rhinne continued after the introduction, with a serious tone this time, "I believe you've guessed what to do now. The three of you will have significant role in assisting them in returning to where they belong. For one, the three of you know more about your world than them for sure, and as such you would be more familiar as to how to get together. The three of you are far apart from one another, and so are the heroes that have come to you, so the first thing to do would be to converge. Meet up with one another. And once you have, make haste and find those who were not sent to either of you.

"However, this task will not be easy. You are definitely not alone. You may have already noticed that some of the Black Mage's commanders have already set foot in your world as well. I am not quite sure of their motives, but I am sure that the Black Mage has ordered them to slay the heroes. If they do attempt to do that, you will be the ones responsible for protecting them. As such, please work together to overcome all odds. We can't afford to fail this mission."

The enormous dragon stepped forward from behind Rhinne, "I, along with the others here, are all indebted to you. All of us, and the Maple World, are counting on your success."

As Afrien spoke, the creatures behind her started to kneel, bowing to the three of them as if to pay their respects. Soro, Nami and Ruriko were left speechless as they saw these respected and powerful creatures bowing to them, respecting them instead. It was not until Rhinne's call that they arose.

"As for your powers, as the three of you had just unleashed them for the first time, it will be weak on you at first. As such, do try to use your powers more often. They only grow stronger the more you use them. You will be needing them very often from now on.

"Alright, I believe what I've said is more than enough for you. Anything more to ask?" Rhinne asked a final question.

"Yes. Who are the ones that are not with us?" asked Nami.

"Strange. Have you not figured that out yourself?" Rhinne turned the question back to Nami.

"I..." Nami was about to deny before remembering the list she made of missing characters from MapleStory. "I... have?"

"There you go, so you _have_ figured it out. That is good, you have actually made things easier," Rhinne chuckled, "Alright now, are you three ready to go back?"

"YES!" Soro, Nami and Ruriko unanimously answered.

"Very good. I will make the necessary preparations then." As she said, Rhinne spread her arms and the hourglass levitated above her, spinning along its axis.

"I can feel that my powers are draining away from me, but I have used some of my remaining powers to make a pact with the Gods of reality. Sadly, that would be insufficient to allow the heroes to regain their powers in your world, but it would allow your own powers to work. That alone should suffice for now.

"I will now send you back to your places. I shall await your success," Rhinne said as she raised her hourglass, which then glowed a yellow colour. However, as she was about to warp them off, Soro interrupted.

"Wait, what do we do to send them back after getting them together?"

"The answer will come to you. I have foreseen in the timeline that we shall meet again," Rhinne smiled as she resumed. Moments later, the three of them felt a glow around them, becoming brighter as Rhinne channeled more of her energy. Soon, they vanished.


	15. Chapter 14

_**A/N:**_ _The chapters prior to this were able to be released quickly because I already had them written within the last two years. This chapter will be the first one that I will be drafting right here. The subsequent chapters are non-existent yet, but I have planned to release them on here first._

 _I am amazed at the amount of views for my story so far. Thank you all so much for reading this meagre story of mine and tolerating my amateur writing._

* * *

 **THE BEGINNING**

"Soro?" a soft voice echoed.

Soro twitched a little, the pain from what he had experienced still lingering within his body, but with a much weaker intensity. He slowly opened his eyes to find the five of them by his side, but no longer hostile to him.

"Ah, Soro, you're awake!" Cygnus exclaimed in relief. The others looked just as relieved.

"Ungh, what happened?" Soro asked, caressing his head as he sat up.

"Madness. That's what happened," answered Kyrin. Soro could see that the five of them were still in disbelief about what just happened.

"Soro, we are so sorry about what happened! You know we did not mean to harm you in any way!" Aranelle anxiously tried to explain.

"Ahh... it's okay, I understand. I understand," Soro reassured. Suddenly remembering something more important from the foul stench looming in the air, he quickly stood up, but the lingering pain caused him to collapse again.

"Are you alright?" asked Cygnus.

"...Yeah... I'm okay..." Soro panted, as he slowly got up. Tracing the source of the smell, he limped his way until he was certain where it was. He looked down. Unmistakably, the corpse was still there, albeit with the presence of flies encircling it. As he neared the corpse, he collapsed yet again, this time to his knees.

"Father..." Unable to hold back his tears, Soro leaned on his father's body with his arms crossed and wept. The others only watched as he shed his tears, not knowing what to do to help or console him.

Suddenly, as he was weeping, the place where his arms touched the body shone radiantly. In an instant, the chamber was shrouded in an aura of sorts. As all of them looked around at the suddenly altered room, they saw what seemed to be a blur figure of Arkarium, stepping from the long passage into the chamber. He then muttered something, though what he said was not audible at all. Then, as if fast-forwarded, Arkarium's actions seemed to speed up immensely as the chamber was suddenly filled with a pedestal, the four cobra-entwined pillars, and the book stand. Then, Arkarium spread his arms, at which moment the orbs appeared on top of the pillars, and a grimoire started appearing on top of the book stand. Arkarium's companion cobra flew towards the pedestal, enlarging itself before seemingly warped itself into stone. Everything was setting up to what Soro had seen when he first stepped foot into this chamber. Aran tried to touch the pillars but felt only nothingness. It was apparently just a virtual image.

Then, everything seemed to slow down to normal speed. Arkarium walked to the book stand and started a conjuring spell, but was seemingly interrupted when someone appeared at the passageway. It was Soro's father.

Another fast-forward, and Arkarium was right in front of his father. Arkarium seemed to have spoken something to his father but neither of them could hear it. Then, in a series of alternation between fast-forward and normal speed, they saw what seemed like Arkarium grabbing the man by his head, which caught the man completely off-guard. The next moment, the man shriveled in pain as Arkarium's form started to morph into that of the man's. As the metamorphosis was near completion, the man's struggling seemed to weaken, and stopped completely just as the metamorphosis was complete. Arkarium's hands then lit up as the man's body started flying. It landed right in the position where the corpse was now, with a completely similar posture. Then, in normal speed, as Arkarium took one last look at Soro's father's body one last time, everything vanished, leaving just the six of them and a completely empty chamber.

"What was that?" asked Aran.

"That was... what had happened..." Soro confirmably said as he looked down at his father's body again, now knowing how his father had died.

"I'm... I'm sorry for your loss, Soro." Cygnus could only think of such to say.

Soro said nothing. In his mind, he wanted to blame them for the loss of his father. If the five of them had not crashed into him ever so suddenly, neither would Arkarium. No Arkarium meant that his father could have avoided death. Why was he so unlucky to be chosen to accept this fate? Why him?

"The answer lies with the true identities of the three of you," Rhinne's words ringed in his mind. But what identity? Why would he be bestowed with powers that could counter Arkarium's influence and illustrate the memories of his father's body? He would rather live a normal life without anything special rather than the mess he was left with now. As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered Rhinne's advice of meeting up with the two other girls first before deciding on the next move.

Wiping his tears off, he stood up, carried his father's body and started walking along the passageway towards the exit. The others followed, with no words exchanged among them.

They came back to Soro's father's bedroom, out of the dark stairway past the old wooden shelf. The spoils that adorned the shelf was now no more than a grievous remembrance of his father's tragic end, which Soro did not want to think of. The entrance to the chamber sealed itself behind them, leaving no trace that there ever was a basement there. It caught all of them by surprise, except Soro, who did not turn back to look at it and instead headed straight for the front door. As he exited the house, he stopped temporarily to pick up a shovel which rested itself outside.

The sombre mood prevailed as Soro finally stopped when he came to the nearby river. Trying to hold back his tears, he silently whispered, "Father, you have raised and guided me well into adulthood. For that I can never be more grateful to you. You told me your wish is to rest by nature's side, and now I shall repay you by granting your wish." As he finished, he laid his father's body down, and started digging.

For about an hour the others watched as he dug the ground and eventually buried his father. They did not dare intercept him as they themselves were overcome by guilt as well. When he finally was done, he told them, "Sorry guys, leave me alone. I-I need time to accept this," said Soro before he turned and started heading back.

* * *

Cygnus came to Soro's room. She wanted to console him and apologise for what they did. She entered the room to find Soro sitting on his bed, staring away at a distance. He looked up for a moment as Cygnus stepped in, and then continued to slouch again. Cygnus slowly came to Soro and, upon being met with Soro's apathy, slowly sat down beside him.

"Soro... I... I am... so sorry... about what happened," Cygnus found herself unable to speak properly due to guilt still looming within her.

"Tell me, Cygnus. What exactly happened?" Soro asked without looking at Cygnus.

Cygnus took a deep breath before telling Soro everything that had happened, from the pain in the head, to them regaining their powers.

"Before I knew it, we were all blindly following orders from nowhere. After Arkarium asked us to pin you down, he personally went and tried to corrupt you himself, but somehow, you retaliated, in a way we have never ever seen before. You started... glowing, so bright that it affected us. Arkarium was completely taken by surprise, while we came back to our senses realising that we had submitted to him all along. He vanished before we could even try to confront him."

Soro silently listened, partially in awe at the part when he started to retaliate. For a good hour-and-a-half after heading back home, Soro's mind had been filled with ambivalence about his visitors. Cygnus's story only stood to reaffirm that his father's death was already fated from the start.

"I see. Then I cannot blame you and the others for what happened to my father," Soro said as he turned towards Cygnus, "And please, no need to blame yourself too. I know you people didn't wish to come here too."

Soro recalled the story of the heroes of the Maple World being banished to the reality and his mission of sending them back where they belong. His mind wandered to the difficulties ahead, of what he will face. For the first time in his life, there's no responsibility greater than the one he held now. His success or failure could affect the destiny of his world and theirs. Father had told him to never escape his responsibilities, and he was still alive, he would have told him to finish his task. As he thought of his father, tears threatened to escape his eyes again, but this time he managed to hold back. The road ahead left no time for him to continue mourning his own loss.

He stood up, and, clenching his fist, declared, "Arkarium and the Black Mage will pay for what they have done to my father."

Cygnus saw his determination but regretted that she and the others could do almost nothing to help. For now, they were liabilities to their host who had to accommodate them and find ways to send them back.

"S-Sorry, Soro, but our powers are lost again. I-I don't think we can help out much."

Soro turned towards Cygnus and replied, "Never mind. We'll find a way to get you people back."

* * *

The dinner that night was lively again as the five visitors were back to their bickering selves. Soro's spirits were lifted, too, as the atmosphere made him put off his father's death. After dinner, he went to his room and took out his computer.

"How am I going to keep contact with Nami and Ruriko?" he thought, "One lives in Singapore and another even farther away in Japan."

He decided that he would keep up with his daily routines on his computer before starting to worry about that. He opened his browser, and would conduct his routine of checking his emails, the fora he participated in, and perhaps play some MapleStory.

As he clicked into the tab which hosted the MapleStory forum, he saw a private message sent to him by some user he was not quite familiar with. It was also sent to another forum user, whom he was not too familiar with either.

 _Title: OPERATION SETBACK_

 _Soro, Ruriko,_

 _We need a time to meet up. Get your people to dress in suitable clothes and come to Seoul, Korea. Use any means necessary to bypass immigration. Make haste. We will discuss more on this once we're together._

 _Reply to me once you have arrived. Let nobody in the forums and around us know about this._

 _Nami_

 _PS: Don't question how I managed to find you guys out._


	16. Chapter 15

**THE ALTERNATE PATH**

Nami woke up first. She felt something was weird, as if everything seemed to be rather... familiar. Nevertheless, she rose from her bed, and went to prepare breakfast. As she was spreading butter on a piece of toast, things kept getting back to her. Had she lived this moment before?

She watched as Checky and Luminous got out of their room, stretching themselves as they walked to the table. In a few seconds, she thought in her mind, she would be serving the plates of toast onto the table, and Phantom would be the last to exit the room, upon which he would borrow her note and pen.

True enough, as Nami had just served breakfast, Phantom broke out of the room. "Hey Nami, do you have a pen and a piece of paper? I just thought of something that I really need to write down now," he asked.

"No way..." Nami thought in her head as she went and reached for her pen and note.

* * *

Phantom borrowed Nami's note and pen and hurriedly scribbled down what he heard from Aria's mouth just as the others were having their breakfast. Strangely, his mind could remember it rather clearly, if not perfectly.

When he was quite sure he jotted down all of it, he brought it to the table, where he studied the poem as he chugged down some toast, ignoring any ongoing conversations at the table.

"What are you reading there?" asked Luminous, feeling curious. He scooted over to Phantom who was sitting beside him, peering toward his note.

Phantom did not react, but merely continued staring at his note while chugging another piece of toast down his mouth. He did not even flinch as Luminous got behind him to read whatever was on that note as well.

"What exactly is this?" Luminous asked again, but still Phantom was too concentrated. In his mind was the mind-boggling tangle between words that he himself had volunteered to take the responsibility to untangle them. It didn't really seem to make sense, even if he tried hard to read between the lines.

"What could she be trying to tell me?" thought Phantom over and over again. As romantic and poetic a person he was, this poem seemed too complicated and sophisticated for him. Nevertheless, he continued trying to decipher its meaning. Luminous went back to his breakfast as he couldn't quite stand literature.

Phantom was startled as he heard someone knocking on the front door. He raised his head to the direction of the door as Nami stood and got to the door.

When Nami opened the door, she seemed surprised. It was a policeman and a policewoman.

"Hello, we're currently looking for this guy," said the policeman as he produced a picture. It showed a portrait of someone rather familiar. But it wasn't a typical photo that had been taken from crime scenes or a passport-sized photo. Rather, it seemed to be painted on, like a work of art. "Do you happen to know him?"

Nami studied it as the first thought hit her mind. It was Phantom's face.

She turned her head as she glanced towards Phantom, remembering vividly what had happened.

"Ah, I see him from here. Very nice, please tell him to come over, we would like to see him to...interrogate him," said the male police without waiting for Nami's reply, as he peered in and saw Phantom sitting at the dining table.

Nami watched as Phantom hesitated. "I'm not coming over," said Phantom as he went back to study the poem.

"This is an order. You are required to be here immediately now," the male police officer raised his voice, to which Phantom stood up and said, "I'm going back to the room."

However, having said that, Nami saw that Phantom came to the door instead. "No..." Nami shooked her head a little watching how everything started to unfold. She did not listen to the absurd messages of the police. All she was thinking now was how to get out of this situation. And she needed to be swift.

"...And we shall now carry the execution ourselves on the spot," said the male police, jerking Nami back to reality. "No!" she thought, "This is it! I need to do something before Phantom..."

Suddenly, as she started to panic, things around her started to slow down dramatically. It was as if she had been in some kind of movie and someone controlling it had slowed it down a few times, only that she seemed to be the only one at normal speed. But it was not over. The hands of the male officer, which now seemed to be emitting some darkly aura, was coming down very mercilessly, albeit very slowly, aiming for Phantom's head. Nami had no idea what exactly was happening right now, but she had no time to think about that. It was now or never.

By instinct, Nami grabbed the arms of the male officer, directing his arms away from Phantom as they were still charging slowly straight. But she did not plan on diminishing the powers about to radiate from his arms - she had no idea how to do that. Instead, she turned his arms so that what they were aiming for was his companion, the female officer, instead of Phantom.

And then everything went back to normal. The others paralysingly stared as the hands of the male officer, which initially headed for Phantom's head, suddenly strayed off course and grabbed onto the head of the female cop instead. It caught her by surprise as she stood stunned, seemingly unable to break free from his grasp, while the male officer's hand glowed. He, too, was surprised, and tried to retract his hands before worse things happened.

Alas, he did that, but it was too late. A curiously purple-coloured smoke was seen rising from above the female cop's head, and shortly after she fell to the ground unconscious.

"ORCHID!" yelled the male officer as he knelt down. For a few times he tried calling for her response, but received none. "You! You're..." Luminous suddenly came to realisation when he was cut off.

"You imbecile... YOU KILLED MY SISTER!" the male officer yelled as his rage emerged from within him. He no longer bothered about hiding his identity. A dark smoke encircled him while energy radiated from him, slowly revealing his true form.

"Lotus!" Phantom, Checky and Luminous all gasped. They tried their best in summoning their spells, but they still failed. They could only watch as Lotus slowly came to being, cackling with power and ready to strike at any moment possible.

"You will pay for what you have done to Orchid!" Lotus bellowed as he made his first attack. He charged a dark energy bolt with his hands and shot it towards them mercilessly, intending to annihilate them once and for all.

"LOOK OUT!" yelled Luminous as the three of the three of them braced for impact. However, just as the bolt was about to land, it suddenly changed its course and headed towards Lotus's direction. Just when they thought the bolt was about to hit Lotus, he reached his hands out and caught it like a basketball. Then, in the most unexpected way, Lotus himself seemed to be dispelling the bolt as they saw the bolt eventually neutralising within his grasp.

Lotus himself did not quite know what had happened. The bolt was not supposed to come back to him, and it definitely was not within his control to reach his hands out and neutralise the bolt. It was as if the whole process of charging and shooting the bolt was entirely reversed.

The three of them turned and saw Nami standing against Lotus, one arm out and her hands emanating hints of energy, as though she had been the one deflecting the bolt. Her eyes were glowing and she was definitely not herself at the moment. "You want your sister back?" she asked, in a cold and echoing voice.

Just as she finished asking, she swiftly raised her arm, her hand glowing even more and acting as if holding something in it. In an instant, Phantom, Luminous and Checky felt the ground trembling as they saw Lotus slowly losing power and transforming back to that male officer. The body of the female officer magically rose as Lotus's hands went back to her head, and as if giving her life, the curiously purple-coloured smoke went back to her head, and she was alive again. In a few moments, the male officer took out the document again. After a few moments of reading and some strange gestures, Lotus and Orchid backed away from the apartment. Everything was exactly what had happened moments ago, but the whole course of action of the two of them had been reversed entirely.

As soon as Lotus and Orchid disappeared and the ground stopped trembling, Nami collapsed on the floor. "Nami!" Checky, being the first to notice, called out and attempted to support her.

"I'm-I'm alright, I just... feel weak, that's all," said Nami, panting hard. So that was it. That was her power that Rhinne had mentioned.

"Come on mate, you need a bit of rest," Checky said, carrying Nami back to her room with Phantom's assistance.

* * *

"If Lotus and Orchid could find us here, I don't think it's wise to keep staying here. We need to move," said Luminous.

Nami thought of her encounter with Rhinne and her advice on matters. Rhinne was right. She would need to meet up with Soro and Ruriko before they start thinking of going back. But how? And Rhinne said something about finding those who were not with either of the three of them. But who were they and how should she know who were the ones that were with the other two?

The four of them were at Nami's room where they decided it best to discuss matters pertaining to their return. Checky took out the list which contained the names of disappeared characters in the game. He gave it to Nami, who reached for her pen as soon as she received the list. "Rhinne said something about meeting two other people. She said the other heroes on this list are currently with either of them, and there are some who are not. We need to meet up and go to the place where those who are not with either one of us are now."

"Wait, you met Rhinne?" asked Phantom.

"I dreamed of meeting her." Nami decided not to disclose too much information about how she managed to alter their fates.

"So, who are the ones not with the three of you again?"

"I don't know. She didn't tell us much. I think I will need to use the process of elimination," said Nami as she used her pen to cross out the names of Phantom, Luminous and Checky. Checky looked towards the list, finding out that there was still a considerable number of names left.

As Checky looked towards Nami for the next move. For a moment Nami sat as if contemplating something, or rather, staring blankly into the space. "Nami? Hello?" Checky called out, but Nami seemed completely oblivious to his presence.

"Earth to Nami, are you there? Come in, Nami..." Checky called out as he waved his hands in front of Nami.

"I know who they are," Nami said, right after she came to. She took her pen and crossed out more names, leaving only two of them uncrossed.

"You... what?" Checky felt bewildered. Did Nami actually know something out of mere nothingness? She did not respond, but merely went to the MapleStory forum, seemingly knowing her next move.

Nami started typing what seemed like a private message. In the 'Recipients:' box, she typed in two usernames. Nami personally was not quite familiar with them even on the forum but somehow she knew it was the two of them.

 _Title: OPERATION SETBACK_

 _Soro, Ruriko,_

 _We need a time to meet up. Get your people to dress in suitable clothes and come to Seoul, Korea. Use any means necessary to bypass immigration. Make haste. We will discuss more on this once we're together._

 _Reply to me once you have arrived. Let nobody in the forums and around us know about this._

 _Nami_

 _PS: Don't question how I managed to find you guys out._

"Wait, how do you suddenly know about all these info?" asked Checky as he saw the information in the message which to him seemed like it came out of the blue.

"It just... came to me. I don't know why, but I just know." Nami actually had no idea how she knew it was Korea they would need to head for. Was it part of her powers that let her know about the backgrounds of Soro and Ruriko, who were the ones not with them, as well as their locations?

Meanwhile, Phantom got back to reading the poem-like text he took down earlier in that day. Something seemed to hit his mind especially after what he had experienced.

"Enchantment and sorceries permanently sealed... so it seems like whoever travelling from the Maple World to here will lose his powers. That explains it."

"Hey, you still reading whatever that thing is?" Luminous asked as he turned towards him. Phantom merely nodded. The text seemed clearer to him now, but he still had questions in his mind.

Now was the poem trying to hint at something about Nami's powers?

* * *

 **A/N:** _Hey guys, after this chapter, it will be quite some time before I can release another chapter because I will be returning to my hometown for 1.5 weeks this coming Chinese New Year and I won't be able to bring my computer back with me. But, I shall be bringing my trustee notebook and pen so that I could draft out the following plot for this story._


	17. Chapter 16

**RECALLED TO LIFE**

Ruriko woke up to find the calamity presented to her up front. No doubt about it, the spirits from yesterday sought to wreak havoc upon the shrine, the first sign of the Black Mage's influence in this world. Although, thankfully, they did not cause any major damage to the shrine's infrastructure, they had caused a substantial amount of mess of leaves, dust and chipped marble. All these mess called for her attention and had to be completely cleaned up if the shrine was to return to its previous state.

Brushing off whatever mess that had gathered onto her while she was unconscious, Ruriko stood up. She looked around to examine the extent of the damage. What caught her eyes first was the Hayato statue that stood in front of her.

The Hayato remained in his original position and posture as ever. It was as though the statue had been untouched. Ruriko found that while other parts of the shrine bore evidences of the ravages of the evil spirits, the statue was the only structure that stayed perfectly intact. For that matter, it looked as if a professional cleaner had cleaned all specks of dust off his body and waxed just about every inch of it.

Remembering her visitors, Ruriko hurried her way to the corridor that hosted her ancestors' tablets, the site where the confrontation had occurred. When she arrived, she saw Athena and Xenon attending to Neinheart and Claudine respectively, who were both still lying unconscious.

'Athena! Xenon! You guys are okay!' Ruriko exclaimed as she ran towards them. Both of them stood up to her.

'Ahh Ruriko, you are alright too!' sighed a relieved Athena.

'We're fine…..' said Xenon, 'but they are not,' he continued as he looked towards their fallen comrades. Neinheart had suffered messy cuts and bruises on various parts of his body, including a deep wound around the neck and forehead. Claudine, too was tattered in lacerations and upon closer look, it was clear that her neck bore some sort of constriction mark that did not seem like it came from natural causes. A distance away, rubble and debris from the shrine's structure laid in piles in every corner. Under one of them laid Irena, whose legs, severely wounded as the others', were the only parts of her that were visible. Xenon went forth and, after activating whatever function on his body still available in this new world, managed to muster his strength to move whatever was crushing Irena. It revealed an even more horrifying sight to see, so grotesque that even Athena shivered a little seeing what happened to Irena.

Ruriko and Athena blankly watched as Xenon moved the bodies and put the three of them together, side-by-side. They bore a stark resemblance - that nowhere on their bodies had there no injuries at all. 'No pulse from either of them,' said Xenon, but to Athena the injuries were suffice to tell. That it was highly likely that any life that these bodies once carried with them had all been snuffed out.

'To think not long ago we were just fighting side-by-side…' Athena choked a little, 'Time… is so short for them. So, so short…' she trailed on.

'Claudine…' Xenon could only mutter a word. If there had not been any feeling that would otherwise have been elicited in any ordinary human being at such a moment - especially in someone who had lost his/her most valuable person in life - it was now being slowly calibrated into his system. Perhaps his eyes would have teared a little bit for the first ever time if this function was within his range too.

Nevertheless, Xenon's system made him recover from such grave mood quicker and he asked, 'Do we… bury them?' Xenon realised for as long as he had been killing enemies, he had hardly known how to treat their dead bodies other than leaving them to rot.

'I don't know…..' were the only words coming from Athena's mouth. Her mind wandered various directions, from when they were still at a roundtable discussion that would soon bear fruit and lead to the formation of the Alliance, to what they would be doing from here on. Do they still carry on searching for a way back home? Perhaps, but life in the Maple World would never be the same for her again.

While Xenon still stared at the corpses, Athena turned to Ruriko, for the first time hoping someone else other than herself would take charge of the situation. Alas, Ruriko was, likewise, still staring blankly at them. Her eyes even seemed emotionless.

'I guess we do, then,' Xenon said and Athena reluctantly concurred. They decided that they would exit the shrine and find an appropriate place for the burial and attempt to dig holes in the ground before carrying their bodies. Athena kept trying to call on Ruriko but no reply - or even any reaction - came from her at all. Thinking she needed some solitude to gather back her senses, Athena informed her of their decision before heading off to the other end of the hallway.

'No…' Ruriko croaked. She collapsed on her knees, covered her face and wept. What had happened during the past few hours? She tried to bring her mind to answer that, but found that she could not get over with what was in front of her. Never mind that the shrine might have to be rebuilt, the occurrence at her front was something she could not comprehend with, and struck her almost to the point of traumatisation.

Then, she felt a sense of life stirring within her. Slowly, she uncovered her face, and at that moment, her body felt very light.

Athena and Xenon were getting to the end of the corridor when suddenly, a gust of wind filled the hallway. It seemed to be rushing in from the outside into the very confinement they were in, and in the direction against them. By instinct, they turned their heads around. What they saw was something absolutely remarkable.

The winds were gathering around Ruriko herself, dust swirling around and her dress thrashing about as she was slowly lifted from the ground. As power in the form of green essences radiated from her eyes, she assertively commanded something in perhaps Japanese as she lifted both arms at both sides. Xenon's system helped translate her words.

'Ancestors and guardians of Heian Yamagawa,  
By the power of life, I beg of thee!  
Hear me, and heed me!'

As she finished, the first column of stone tablets at both sides or the corridor walls lit up very brightly in green at Ruriko's end. Very soon after, more tablets lit up column by column in their direction, instantly filling the space with green radiance, as bright as day itself. Athena and Xenon marvelled at the brilliant light show for a short moment before Xenon's translation programme got to work again.

'Ancestors and guardians of Heian Yamagawa,  
By order of her, guardian of lives  
And by virtue of unfinished deeds,  
Confer upon the fallen thy powers and blessings  
And therefore recall them back to life!'

Ruriko thrusted her arms forward to the corpses as she chanted. As if really heeding whatever Ruriko had just uttered, green faintly luminous smokes emanated from each and every tablet in the corridor. The essences twisted, twirled and danced as they travelled before finding their ways to the three bodies that lay just in front of Ruriko. Each time a smoke enters a body, a small part of its wounds lit up before fading away to reveal that that part had been completely healed. Throughout this whole process, the gust of wind never stopped howling within the confines of the hallway.

As essences stopped emanating from the tablets and the last puff of smoke entered Claudine's body, all three bodies have completely and miraculously recovered from all injuries as if they never ever had one at all. As the winds gradually died down, Ruriko collapsed on the floor once again completely fatigued, while Athena and Xenon hastened back to help her up. Meanwhile, the three who had fallen started breathing again.

* * *

When Ruriko came to, she found herself carried by Athena, her arm over Athena's shoulder and walking slowly back to her house. Everything felt surreal for a second, as if instinct had been taking over her body for the last few moments, and her body felt weak.

'A-Athena?' muttered Ruriko.

'I got you, don't worry,' came Athena's reassurance.

They continued their way back. At the far end of the visible scenery of mountains and river came the first break of dawn, and Ruriko felt rather soothing. She heard footsteps behind other than hers and Athena's, and so she turned around. Immediately behind her was Neinheart, with Irena trailing behind. Slightly farther back were Xenon and Claudine. The four of them matched their paces as they walked and stayed behind Ruriko and Athena at all times.

The way home was slow and silent. As soon as they reached the house and stepped foot into it, Athena brought Ruriko to her room and laid her down on the mat on which she was sleeping before all that happened. Ruriko laid comfortably but stayed widely awake.

It was Neinheart who went forth while the others gathered round.

'Xenon told us about what happened. We…' Neinheart stuttered, for the first time, 'We are in your greatest debt.'

Ruriko merely smiled. She did not exactly know what happened. All she knew was that some of her companions took a trip to the Afterlife and back, and she felt certain that she had something to do with it. She was not quite eager to talk, for she was still feeling as if she had walked five hundred miles and more.

'We'll leave you here, if that is fine with you,' Athena said, to which Ruriko nodded. Slowly, the five of them retreated from her room and shut the door.

Ruriko could not put herself to sleep even if she could have done so without much trouble. After all, it was about time for her to wake up, assuming her normal routine was still followed. She scooted a little to reach her phone, which was just lying out of her reach, and flicked to check her messages.

There was a message for her when she went over to the MapleStory forum. It was from another forum user whom she had seen a few times but did not quite make a move to befriend her online, and it was sent to her and another unfamiliar forum user.

 _Title: OPERATION SETBACK_

 _Soro, Ruriko,_

 _We need a time to meet up. Get your people to dress in suitable clothes and come to Seoul, Korea. Use any means necessary to bypass immigration. Make haste. We will discuss more on this once we're together._

 _Reply to me once you have arrived. Let nobody in the forums and around us know about this._

 _Nami_

 _PS: Don't question how I managed to find you guys out._

The message reminded her of her encounter with Rhinne, along with two other strangers, Nami and Soro. She thought about it for a while as she sent a quick reply to Nami's message. The one thing she was sure was that her links with the realm of the Maple World were apparent, but she was uncertain what Rhinne had meant when she had implied that the three of them bore extraordinary identities.

In fact, Ruriko still had many questions to ask. The chief of it, though, was if she could handle the responsibility of sending her friends from the Maple World back to where they belonged. What happened to them as mentioned by Neinheart and Rhinne sounded convincing enough for her to pursue this ultimate challenge, but she was not sure if she had prepared herself for such a life-changing experience.

* * *

The five continued their discussion to clear some doubts before they decided on their next move.

'If Von Leon and Damien could make their first move at us so unexpectedly, they could do more. Knowing the commanders, I know they wouldn't give up just yet,' said Claudine intently.

'Our powers are lost, though,' reminded Athena, 'We can do almost nothing to defend ourselves.' Neinheart raised an eyebrow towards Athena. '...except our wits,' Athena corrected herself.

'I know the most plausible solution would be to evade them as far as possible,' said Neinheart, trying to lay down strategies the way he would in meetings back in Ereve, 'but with powers sealed away, it wouldn't be wise to keep running away from them.'

Meanwhile, Athena retrieved the poem she had previously written down. With the situation they were now in, perhaps this poem might help in a way.

They tried to study the poem. Once again, the line containing 'respective time, light and life' caught their eyes.

'I think we would find solace in the transcendents of reality, and I say we do that,' Claudine suggested, and others agreed.

'But from where do we start? My system is already telling me that there could be much more than just millions of people in this world, much much more than the population of the Maple World,' Xenon pointed out. Once again, this problem proved to be their biggest hurdle to overcome before they could even move on to address the issue of how they could get back.

'Wait, Athena, could you tell me again what happened to us after they summoned the evil spirits?' asked Neinheart suddenly.

Athena told him all she had known. Neinheart thought about it again, and asserted, 'You know, I am fairly sure that we are closer to one of them than you think.'

* * *

 **A/N:** _Ahh, such a fresh start after a long hiatus due to real-life commitments!_

 _Okay, I will admit that the real-life commitments aren't actually 'commitments'. I suck at time management, I have a serious issue of procrastinating, and many a time I simply neglect the existence of this project. Sorry folks! Blame me not on this one!_

 _Firstly, do allow me to apologise because my frequency of updating this story has been rather inconsistent as of late, and even though you have my word that I won't abandon this project, I cannot guarantee that I will be updating this any time sooner._

 _As to what has happened in the story so far, I think I have mentioned that this story first appeared on MSEA forums before here. The three characters from the reality are actually my forum friends whom I've decided to feature in this story! Be that as it may, they were featured only in name, and less of their complete character in here (though Nami did tell me she was rather excited to have 'three hot guys descending upon her' XD_

 _Once again, apologies if I'm unable to deliver the contents swiftly enough!_


	18. Chapter 17

**SPILLAGE OF CORRUPTION**

Tear's mind was filled with agony and despair as she struggled to retain what little consciousness she had at that moment.

The nightmare had happened right before her eyes, and she herself would be consumed by her own nightmare. She heard Hilla leaving her with a possessed Kyle. She could not open her eyes, and heard energy cackling, presumably Kyle charging his powers to finish her off once and for all. She had no chance - or even will, for that matter - to fight back. As she slowly lost her consciousness, her mind kept repeating to herself.

 _Why Kyle, why?_

Then, she felt as if someone had swooped down, grabbed her body and darted forward. Strong winds blew past her, as she heard a violent crash of debris behind as though a large object had crushed everything that was there. And then it was all dark and silent.

* * *

When Tear came to, she felt dizzy. She heard unfamiliar siren in a distant, and people speaking hastily in Pantheose. She felt herself lying on something soft, and that she seemed to be transported somewhere by that something. Then she fell unconscious again.

When Tear came to a second time, she felt very warm in wherever she was in. She was no longer on the move, but she was still lying on the same softness. Was she in the Afterlife? Was this what death felt like?

Her head still felt heavy, but she was in a much better condition. She tried opening her eyes, but everything was so blinding that she closed her eyes again. Slowly, she got used to the brightness, and opened her eyes again.

She seemed to be on a bed, and she was lying along with other people in a ward of sorts. These people were mostly severely injured. She looked down upon herself. Her Buster suit was already stained with dried blood, while she herself was bandaged at several areas. She looked at her arm to see that the IV was administered to her; there was a needle through her right arm which was connected with a tube to a bag of liquid hung on a pole. Compared to some of the injuries sustained by her fellow patients, hers was relatively light - she was still alive.

Her bed was directly adjacent to the big windows and she looked outside. The city was so different from how she perceived it when she first came to this world. It was clearly torn apart, with enraging blazes through buildings and skyscrapers, while a battle between the Black Mage's forces and the military of this world raged on. More buildings were still collapsing down as she saw attack projectiles flying everywhere.

Tear did not know what had happened. In her mind was a slew of events that happened so fast and her memory was a pile of mush.

And Kyle, _oh Kyle_. Tear could only weep as she thought of the events that transpired. Several more injured people were rushed into her ward, and on the television was a series of urgent news reports about the attack on the city, but she could not care less. She could not take her mind off him. How did all of this happen? How could she have expected that she would lose him so quickly?

Tear had had a rosy vision of her with Kyle. She had previously admired Kyle when she took on the role of the Kaiser, even when she herself was likewise taking up an equally important role. But her love for him only grew the moment they got swept into the reality. That was one of the few times she got intimate with him, and the lovey-dovey decorations all around town certainly made her feel even more dazed by her closeness with Kyle. She had wholeheartedly believed and supported him when he said he would find a way to get both of them out. Tear was going to confess her feelings to Kyle the moment they were both back at Grandis, and she swore she had noticed Kyle wanting to do the same to her.

But these were all gone now. She was even more heartbroken as her mind drifted towards when Kyle started attacking her. Kyle had already turned, and he could no longer recognise her. Gone were their good memories together with each other. Gone were their dreams and aspirations as part of the Heliseum Force, which were still part of her motivation even after Velderoth's departure. Gone were any hope at all for the two of them to be together. Forget about going back to Grandis, Tear did not even know if there would be a way to get back the Kyle she had always known and loved.

As she continued to think of that tragic moment, her mind started to grow curious.

 _Who saved her?_

She was certain that there was nobody close enough that could save her back in Lotte World, as most people have already fled from there. It could never have been Hilla, or one of her own minions for that matter. So who did it?

The light in her ward turned off as Tear lied back down, unable to do anything to help with the situation outside. She had not felt so helpless before in such a situation. Back in Grandis, she had been hailed as the idol of the battlefield as she confronted and put down numerous invasions. In this world, she was merely a nobody.

* * *

Kyle could not fathom how powerful he was in this world. He had been endlessly confronted by strange machines in the reality that meant to take him down, but each time they approached and attacked him, he merely shrugged them off. The newfound power within him was so overwhelming, a dozen times more than that at the time he realised his original Kaiser powers, and it disintegrated these machines and infantries trying to defend the city. But of course, they were no match for him, after all, or even Hilla's own minions.

The only thing imperfect was that he could not help Hilla kill off her rival, the renowned battlefield idol. He wanted her to suffer from a powerful blow to her fragile body, but someone else rushed before him and grabbed her, soaring away after that. He moved so fast that Kyle was not able to get a good look of him.

'Who was he?' Kyle thought. But his thoughts did not last long, for more land and flying machines were coming to attack him. He cut each and every one of them before he heard his own lover calling out to him.

'Heeey loverboy, let's leave this place and let my minions finish the work shall we?'

Near Hilla, Magnus felt like he was about to puke.

'Really, Hilla?' Magnus questioned her actions.

'Oh there you are….Hey, don't judge me!' Hilla snapped, 'I already said Kaiser will be mine!'

'Whatever, let's get back to business shall we?'

Magnus was still sitting on the bench as Hilla inadvertently went to where he was sitting. She was commanding her minions to commence the attack on Lotte World and subsequently the whole city, and when she moved out of Lotte World she did not notice him sitting at the entrance. The dark Kaiser slowly levitated his way to them before descending to the ground.

Hilla walked over to the dark Kaiser, who by then had already transformed back to a soulless Nova man. She kissed him on the cheek, and sensually whispered, 'Good job, honey. I drooled a little just from seeing you…'

'STOP IT!'

'Okay, okay, geez Magnus, can't people roleplay a bit longer?'

'Well if you do that one more time I swear to our master that I will….. Oh. Hello, _Kaiser_ ,' Magnus turned to cynically greet Kyle as he saw him there.

Kyle, still a bit dazed from his lover's kiss, did not immediately recognise Magnus. He only got back to himself after Magnus stood up, walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder, 'Did quite a bit of work there, Kyle-ssi. I hope your date went well!'

Aside, Hilla folded her arms and shook her head. 'Tsk tsk tsk, look who's trying to roleplay now, dimwit.'

'Says the one who just made the Kaiser her boyfriend,' Magnus fired back, 'But enough of that, what's our next plan? And Kyle, since you're here, you're one of us now.' Kyle merely blankly nodded.

'Hmm…' Hilla thought for a bit. She and Magnus had already covered Seoul, what next? They had only received directives from their master the Black Mage about a very vague mission when they were similarly thrown into the reality. For all that Hilla knew, they had already completed theirs, one a little bit too easy for them, for in the past they had to deal with a considerable resistance that is the Maple Alliance whenever they launched attacks. It was one of those times when she felt there was nothing to do.

Just as she was about to toy with Kyle again to deliberately provoke Magnus - she loved Magnus as a rival, and to be able to toy against him was her second most enjoyable things to do for her - Magnus had signalled them to him, for he had felt something vibrate within his pocket. He had pulled the source of this vibration - a smartphone - out from his pocket, indicating a message from Whatsapp.

'I forgot to tell you guys that the peeps of this world got their very own special gadget for communication and thanks to whomever I just took form of I learned of the existence of this thing. And this message is coming from… wait who's…"

'Lemme see this!' Hilla impatiently snatched the phone from Magnus. She tried to flick the phone a little bit but she could not figure out how to get it to work.

'Oh, you're hopeless, Hilla!' Magnus snapped as he snatched the phone back and flicked to reveal the conversation. This is…. from Damien! And one from Orchid too!'

Kyle stretched his neck from their backs to get a good look at the phone's screen, wanting to learn about this curious little gadget. The header of this particular conversation read 'The Commanders of the Black Mage'. Magnus read out the two messages that were on there.

'Met with strong resistance. Recuperating with the Lion King now. Beware of the girl with unimaginable powers…...'

Magnus and Hilla felt strange seeing Damien's message. Meanwhile, Orchid's message below made them feel even stranger, though not before feeling amused at first because it came with little images of a generic angry expression.

'I almost got killed this time! That bitch will pay for it! :-('  
'I can't get through her powers though…'

'I think they had trouble at their places…...' Kyle remarked.

'Eyy… bunch of weaklings, I knew their powers are no match for ours,' Magnus sneered.

'Ours, Magnus? More like my own powers you lazy slob! And my own plans that you said were crappy!' Hilla retorted. 'Arkarium hasn't reported on his progress though, fat chance he got killed at his place already, that poor bastard.'

Magnus shrugged off Hilla's complaints and typed in a message. 'Messed them up. Magnus did all the work.'

'What the hell, man?! Gimme that!' For a good half-minute, Kyle stared blankly at the awkward situation while Magnus and Hilla got into a fight for ownership of the phone, and were only stopped when Magnus accidentally pressed the Send button, so that the actual message sent out was 'Messed Hilla alkl upp. Magnuz did all thge work.'

'Look what you did now!' screamed Hilla.

'No, look what _you_ did now!' Magnus yelled back.

Kyle got a little impatient. Even in the reality Hilla and Magnus could not stop fighting over small things. Deciding he would take matters in his own hand, he snatched the phone over, and with a few quick taps sent a message to sort things out. '*Invaded this town. No resistance whatsoever.'

However, just as he had sent the message to the chat group, one popped up from an anonymous user.

'Who's this?' Kyle gave the phone back to the two Commanders who finally stopped fighting each other.

'This….. No idea,' said Magnus. Hilla also shrugged signalling her ignorance. The message here, however, was clear.

'It's time for me to take charge,' read the message.

* * *

'Last night, the capital city of South Korea, Seoul, faced a terror attack of an unprecedentedly large scale which tore down a few notable buildings in the capital. The government of South Korea has reportedly mobilised most of the country's military forces against this attack but to almost no avail. Officials alleged that the attack came from an unknown source that may even be otherworldly…'

On the screen, scenes of a war-torn metropolis flashed before Ruriko's eyes. She stared at the screen, stunned by an image she would not have imagined would happen to a city where a catastrophe would very unlikely occur, and unable to continue packing her clothes in preparation for a trip to the country in which that catastrophe had happened.

From further away, Claudine stared at the screen, frowning. There was no mistaking it. It was Hilla's and Magnus's own troops. She partly admired the technology that the military of the reality had used against them, comparing it with that of the Resistance back at Edelstein, but they were clearly no match for the otherworldly army that had inherited the Black Mage's powers.

'If the army of this world chooses to stubbornly fight on, the Black Mage's army will soon outnumber them. The city will fall at this rate,' Athena shook her head and declared.

Neinheart stared at the screen too along with them. As the scene progressed, he pointed to a figure that stood tall and proud. The military of this world seemed to be focusing their efforts on him, assuming that he was the commander of this disastrous invasion, but alas, he swatted the machines down with his mighty sword like flies.

'Isn't that… Kaiser?' Athena questioned. Indeed, the unique armour of the Dragon Warrior glistened under sparks of light, with the glorious wings flapping behind it and the tail crackling with power while his mighty Kaiserion swung without effort in putting down resistance against him. There was just one thing not right: he was all black in colour.

'And he's fighting…... alongside the Black Mage's army!' Athena gasped at this realisation.

The revelation shocked the others, and even Neinheart raised an eyebrow.

'Hilla and Magnus may not be able to win against the forces of the reality, but with Kaiser it's a different case. I am not sure how they were able to get Kaiser to fight for them, but it really seems like they're hell bent on taking the city,' said Neinheart.

'Look at the colour of his armour, Neinheart. I am pretty sure he was corrupted by the commanders,' said Claudine. Neinheart nodded in concurrence.

'That's one more enemy we will have to face…' said Xenon.

Meanwhile, Ruriko retrieved her phone and decided to inform Soro and Nami about the attack, swiftly tapping on her phone to send the message out.

A few moments later, a notification sound came from her phone, and she checked to see the messages that came on WhatsApp.

'You're not alone here,' read the first one.

* * *

 _A/N: Admittedly, things got real busy these past few months, and I barely managed to squeeze a chapter into all of this time._

 _I must also admit, that in this chapter, the swing of atmosphere is rather unprecedented even for me. I had noted to myself that I needed to make Tear's scenario as tragic as possible, yet at the same time for the scene of Hilla and Magnus, I couldn't think of any other way to present it except in a comedic manner. So... there you have it._

 _Now, the good news is, I have an outline set for the subsequent chapters, though not all of them. That should be able to speed up my pace of updating provided that I don't procrastinate._


	19. Chapter 18

**ON THE MOVE**

'You're not alone here,' Soro sent out on his phone while on the breakfast table. It was after Ruriko had posted in the WhatsApp group about the attack on Seoul.

A newspaper rested on the table just beside his breakfast. Soro held his phone over the headlines, snapped a picture of it, and shared it right after his first message.

'Good morning, Soro,' Mercedes greeted as she came by and took a glass of water. As she made her way to the table, she passed by Soro and, noticing the newspaper on it, picked it up out of curiosity and read the headlines.

'KL under massive attack…..' she read aloud. Curious, she flipped through the pages for the details, before coming to a very lengthy section on this attack to which the newspaper had even dedicated four pages. She studied the section, specifically the pictures rather than the several articles there.

'An attack has happened….. Soro, what place is this?' asked Mercedes.

'You mean KL? It's our capital city, about hundreds of kilometres from here,' Soro answered heavily, 'We may have more responsibility on our hands right now.'

Before long, Soro's phone vibrated again, signalling a new message in the group. As Soro flicked it open, he saw a message from Nami. It was a link to an online article and bore the title 'Rabid animals from Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park broke out, terrorised civilians'.

'What an attack this was,' was what Mercedes could only say as she looked at the pictures on the newspaper. Some bore images of a city in ruins, with a few towers which had visibly collapsed and shophouses and buildings desecrated. Some bore images of casualties urgently being transported in ambulance. Some bore images of soldiers attempting to defend the city. One of them bore a vague image of the enemies which had invaded the city.

'These are Arkarium's minions! What are they doing there?'

Before long, others who slowly awoke joined them at the table. Soro went back to his phone after telling and signaling to them where they could get breakfast.

'So, anything interesting today?' asked Aranelle as she munched on a kaya-butter toast. Mercedes handed the newspaper over to the remaining four, who all expressed shock after reading the news, while Soro tried his best to explain to them what had happened.

'What motive does he have now to launch an attack on that city?' Aran asked.

'By the way, this attack happened in other places too. Here, take a look,' Soro noted as he showed to the others the articles on the attacks on Seoul and Singapore. They looked through the articles detailedly and noticed some similarities, that the enemies were the ones they had been fighting against back in the Maple World.

'Hilla and Magnus have already launched their attacks. The animals….. It can only be Orchid's doing,' Cygnus said as she took a closer look at the photos of the attacks.

'The attacks seemed to all have happened overnight. And it seems to me that they're deploying a great number, as if they seek to conquer these cities,' said Kyrin.

'We must help them! The ones responsible for the attack came from the Maple World, and it's only right that we stop it,' said Cygnus, with an unusually commanding tone.

'I doubt we can,' Mercedes spoke while shaking her head.

'Eh? Something wrong?' asked the Empress.

'Cygnus, much as I admire your righteousness, I have to remind you that the attack is likely over by now, and even if we can catch on to them we still lack the powers to go against them,' reminded Mercedes.

'I am with Cygnus. Never try, never fail,' said Aran.

'Seriously, Aran? You do know how heavy our pole arms are now, right? And still you want a go at it?' Aranelle protested.

Another vibration came from Soro's phone, but the others were too into their argument to mind it. Soro picked it up, and saw a message from Nami.

'Soro, Ruriko, we are still going to Korea, but help out with the cities in your countries first. I'll decide later what to do.'

Soro sent back a word of acknowledgement, but it did not particularly mean anything to him. Could he face Arkarium again, knowing his powers, as well as his guests' and Arkarium's? He knew what he was capable of in the game world, what with various gimmicks, and especially a screen-crack skill of insta-kill - even when these were the only skills made available for Arkarium by the developers in the game, it had already made his life hard trying to slay him. The actual Arkarium might have more up his sleeves. Was he ready, he asked himself.

But the thought of encountering Arkarium made him think of his deceased father again. Knowing what he did to his father, revenge against him was almost imperative. 'Father,' he called out softly, to no one in particular, 'if only there is a way to save you… if only I was given a chance…' As he spoke, the rage within him simmered. He had just been bestowed with powers. What better use to make of it if not to face off with Arkarium once and for all?

'Guys, we're going to KL,' Soro finally declared, breaking the ongoing argument.

'Ehh?' all others turned towards him.

'My car can hold all of you. Prepare what you need to bring there. We leave by noon,' Soro announced before retreating to his room.

The others were slightly baffled at the utmost finality with which he spoke, and while some had their aspersions, they nevertheless concurred. It did not take long for them to prepare because they literally had nothing to prepare, save for a few bottles of water.

After everyone had finished preparing, Cygnus went to Soro's room to inform him of their readiness. The door to his room was ajar, and she pushed it slightly open to see Soro standing in front of a portrait of whom had been his father and staring at it intently.

'Father, you have always told me how you have fought against the Japanese before. Now I, too, will go to war. I, too, will be fighting against those who terrorise the people. This one is for you, my father,' Soro muttered before turning towards Cygnus.

'You guys ready?' he calmly asked, to which Cygnus merely nodded.

'Good. Let's go then.'

* * *

'With the recent massive-scale attacks that have been plaguing cities in East Asia including Seoul, Kuala Lumpur as well as Singapore, the government has decided to shut down all its borders, as well as all ports and cancelling all flights to and from Changi Airport. Prime minister Lee has urged everyone to stay at home until further notice and remain calm, and anyone who still wishes to move freely shall do so at his own risk…'

Nami could only blankly watch. She knew that animals had turned rabid, but she had never expected this attack to be of such a scale that the whole nation is put under an island-wide lockdown. Earlier, she had taken a closer look at a leaked footage posted online pertaining to this attack and concluded from the way the rabid animals looked like, with confirmation from Checky, that this could be no other than Orchid's doing.

More importantly, it now put Nami at a stalemate because this announcement meant she had to find another way out of Singapore.

Suddenly, loud crashes can be heard from downstairs. Alarmed by the sound, she went to see what was going on. Checky, Phantom and Luminous came out to check as well. They went to the concrete railing barricading the confines of the seventh floor, and looked down to find that what they were seeing was definitely not an ordinary day in the neighbourhood.

Abnormally-sized beasts were running amok on the streets at the ground floor of the apartment. Nami made those beast out to be animals that had definitely escaped from a zoo, except that they seemed to have mutated, for they possessed superhuman strength, flipping cars about and smashing any property that got in their ways. People were frantically running away for their lives, and slower ones who were caught up by the animals were immediately grabbed, cobbled and clawed to death while some others were gruesomely bitten to death. Soon, they found the creatures surrounding the location of their apartment, destroying every shoplot there.

'Hey, look over there!' Luminous called out as he pointed towards the sky.

They looked across into the sky to see a huge flock of birds flying about, enough to blot out the sunlight. Each bird was no longer the usual size of birds often seen along the streets, but was the size of an adult human. Some birds were encircling faraway apartment buildings and skyscrapers, some crashed into these buildings in an attempt to destroy them, while some others were charging in a rather organised manner to various other buildings. The birds were still far away from the apartment block where the four of them were, but they noticed a particular flock flying towards their direction.

'The attack has spread to here!' said a panicking Nami.

'We need to settle with the trouble here before leaving the country,' asserted Checky.

'Without our powers, Checky? Are you sure?' asked Phantom.

'You got a better idea, Phantom?' Luminous got mad at Phantom for seemingly not knowing the crux of the situation.

Their immediate resolution was to get out of the apartment block they were in, but not before they grabbed their arms: Phantom with his cane and deck of cards, Luminous with his rod, and Nami with the bow-and-arrows she had brought to the recently-concluded AFA. Checky chose not to bear anything other than a knife from Nami's kitchen, and the transforming relic from his world, which changed into his bear head yet again, and which he put it on.

Phantom snorted, 'Really, Checky? You still can't-'

'Ask no questions. I fight better with this on,' Checky interrupted, pointing to his bear head.

They headed out towards the common area where the lift and the stairs were. As Checky instinctively approached and tried to call for the lift, Nami grabbed his arm.

'No, don't! Something bad's gonna happen to it…. Anyway, we need to leave this place immediately!' she warned as she pulled Checky towards the stairs. Seeing as they were running out of time, Checky decided to let her have her way with it.

They started to descend the flight of stairs as fast as they could. They could hear the screams and roars getting closer and closer to them. As they reached the fourth floor, they felt a sudden strong tremble, as if something had hit the apartment block very hard. It was so strong a shock that Nami almost lost her footing, and would have tumbled down had she not been saved by Phantom.

'What was that?' asked a bewildered Nami.

Ahead of them, they saw numerous bird-beasts smashing onto the lift and started pecking on the lift cables. Shortly after, they saw a compartment plummeting downwards past the lift door.

'We could have been in there…..' Checky blurted out in disbelief, and once again amazed at Nami's foresight.

'We need to keep moving!' alerted Nami.

They delayed no further in making their way downwards. However, they were met with trouble as they got to the second floor.

The corridor of the second floor was already overrun with bestial monsters, who were causing havoc in the neighbourhood, smashing windows, breaking down doors, and catching and ripping apart people who tried to flee. The four of them realised that it would be impossible to continue their way down without alerting them.

'If we have to keep on going,' said Luminous, 'we will need to slip our way through.'

Just as he spoke, one of the monsters overheard him and turned towards them. Several other beasts also noticed their presence. The monsters let out a menacing roar, and within seconds were charging towards them. Phantom and Luminous instinctively tried to charge their powers, before the reality of their lack thereof sank in.

'Not used to fighting without powers, are ya, Lumi? Maybe you shouldn't have said that out loud,' mocked Phantom.

'For that matter, it's a lucky thing that I still exist here,' replied Luminous.

As Checky and Nami readied themselves for a fight, Phantom already had his deck of cards in hand. He tossed the cards out, intending to create confusion among the monsters and buying time for them to continue downwards. His sleight of hand allowed the cards to fly freely towards the monsters and would fly in circular motions around them before returning to his hand. As he did, he yelled, 'Go, now!'

They heeded his call and went down the stairs. However, out of Phantom's expectations, the beasts seemed unfazed by the flurry of cards hurled at them and were still charging towards the four, even as the cards were encircling them. At this rate, the monsters would be able to intercept their path.

Nami, seeing that the card trick was not having its intended effect, reached an arm out, hoping that by some unknown circumstances something would happen. In an instant, the cards which were encircling the monsters froze midair and encased them. Very soon, the monsters found themselves trapped by a mess of frozen cards, and no matter how much strength with which they tried to break out of it, the cards remained unmoved, effectively halting their advance.

'Keep going!' Nami said, 'I think I just froze the cards in time!'

They swiftly made their way past the second floor, while the cards unfroze themselves and made their way back to Phantom's hand.

'Girl, you and I, we ought to be together for a long time,' Phantom facetiously remarked.

'St-stop it!' Nami blushed a little.

'You can still find time to woo a girl, can't you, Phantom?' Luminous asked, finding it unbelievable.

'There's always time for that, my good friend,' Phantom replied, chuckling.

They sped up their descent for fear that the monsters would catch up to them, but things were not better when they got to the ground floor.

Even more monsters were running amok. Several monsters already saw them and were charging towards them. The four of them armed themselves while backing away slightly towards the stairs, before realising that the monsters from the second floor who were on their tails had caught up with them. Before long, they found themselves surrounded.

'Is this your first ever time getting in a fight and actually firing arrows to kill?' Checky asked Nami.

'Yes, and I thought it would help to have played MapleStory,' replied Nami, whose hands were already trembling at the sight of the menacing beasts as she held on tight to her bow. 'Apparently not.'

Before long, a bird swooped down and charged at them. Nami tried to aim her bow towards it and shot, but, being inexperienced, her shot missed the bird by a mile.

'I need to learn archery soon,' Nami remarked, with a hint of regret.

The surrounding animals took the failed attempt as a sign of aggression and relentlessly charged at them.

Soon, a weretiger reached them first. He pounced towards Checky, with a claw ready to swipe him down. Checky narrowly dodged his swipe and, with the knife in hand, slashed the tiger, sending him flying aside.

'Oh god, that's a big one!' said Checky, whose hands started to feel pain due to the sheer strength used to grip the knife so that it wouldn't slip off his hands as he hit the weretiger.

Several beasts charged towards Luminous. While he struggled to find a way to fend off his enemies, some cards flew in a procession-like manner in front of him and threw the beasts off, so that Luminous temporarily avoided the attacks.

'I see that someone needs to be protected for the time being,' the card-bearer quipped.

'For the time being, you better hope I don't get my powers back,' Luminous hit back.

Meanwhile, Nami tried to shoot the beasts that were charging towards her friends. Unfortunately for her, none of her shots could hit them.

'Come on, hit something dammit!' Her emotion turned from one of panic, to one of rage - last felt when she had fell from a platform for the umpteenth time while doing Stage 2 of the Zakum prequest. She loaded her bow and prepared herself for another shot.

As she did, suddenly a strange warped zone appeared around the charging beast she was aiming at, encasing him and completely freezing him in time. Seeing it as an opportunity, Nami wasted no time launching arrows towards the now-stationary beast. The arrows flew straight in his direction, but halted mid-air as they reached the edge of the zone, as if having lodged themselves on an invisible shield. As the zone disappeared as quickly as it had formed, the arrows continued their flight, so that some six arrows hit the beast at the same time. The beast collapsed immediately from the multiple shots.

'Nice!' Nami nodded in approval of this newfound technique.

The four of them managed to fend off the attacks of their enemies; though the animals were still relentlessly charging towards them, they had been able to prevent themselves from getting brutally clawed or bashed.

Suddenly, they heard Checky's screams. Turning their heads over to the direction of it, they saw a bird-beast grabbing him and soaring upwards.

'They got Checky!' shouted Phantom. He thought about using his cards to make the bird release Checky, but at the height it currently was, Checky would almost certainly fell to his death. Several birds were trailing behind him, as if guarding their prized possession they had recently acquired.

Nami tried to piece her mind together as to what was happening at that time. Several beasts were still charging towards them, while the bird who had Checky was flying further and further away. They had put themselves in dire peril and something had to be done.

Now, hoping that something miraculous would happen as they did previously, Nami again reached out a hand. Suddenly, everything seemed to freeze around her.

It came just as the birds were trailing behind Checky, and several tigers and gorillas were leaping towards Luminous. He braced for an inevitable attack when suddenly they froze in the air. He looked around, realising everything around him changed. Everything was paused; frozen in time. The only ones who were still moving were Nami, Phantom and himself.

Luminous saw an opportunity in the line-up of his assailants, and the birds that were flying in a procession. Very swiftly, he started climbing onto the backs of a monster, jumping later and climbing onto another monster positioned slightly higher, and then to a monster which was leaping and had been frozen mid-air. Each time he leapt from one monster to another, he gained altitude and was inching closer and closer to Checky, who had been frozen in time too in the bird's grasp.

He was cruising on the backs of the beasts when he realised there was no other artificial platform to jump towards. The next nearest creature he was aiming at was at a considerable distance away from where he was. By this time, Phantom and Nami, who were watching Luminous, had also noticed the large gap between the two creatures.

Just as Luminous was thinking of a way to get higher while already ten metres off the ground, the incident at the second floor earlier came back to him.

'Phantom, Nami, I need you both to create a platform!' he yelled out from above.

'Again, Nami?' Phantom winked towards her. Her responding nod giving him the reassurance, he tossed his cards towards the gap. The cards formed a neat row between the two creatures and, timing it right, Nami froze the cards. Luminous wasted no time stepping on this newly-created platform and leapt to grab hold of the bird he was aiming at.

Luminous continued to jump from one bird to another, and each time he was met with a similar gap, a new platform would be created. Closer and closer Luminous moved towards Checky, and finally, he reached the bird which was grabbing on to its victim.

Suddenly, time resumed, just as Luminous was able to get onto the back of the bird. The bird, noticing a foreign object on its back, reacted violently and started to soar around recklessly. Surprised at the turn of events, Luminous instinctively shielded the eyes of the bird.

He struggled to hold on tight. As he did, he saw the land creatures still trying to charge at Phantom and, his hands still at the bird's eyes, kicked the bird's humongous body. Within seconds, Luminous found himself plunging towards Phantom's attackers - with sight robbed away, the bird was completely at the mercy of Luminous.

'Look out below!' Luminous yelled.

Phantom immediately ducked to avoid the bird, while it collided with his assailant, completely taking the creature by surprise. Now at ground level, Luminous moved and kicked the legs of the bird which were still clutching on to Checky. The claws flung open instantly, and Checky was tossed onto the ground. He felt a surging pain from hitting the ground hard, but at least he was fine.

For a few moments, Luminous manipulated his hostage to attack the beasts that attempted to attack his friends, even managing to make them mistakenly attack each other. Nami could only stare with awe at how Luminous could render the bird to be under his control, while at times using her time powers to slow the advance of charging animals so that Luminous's bird could effectively halt them. At last, when every creature had but fallen, she froze the bird in time, while Checky lodged the blade into its neck and slit its throat to ensure its demise.

'That's that. Thanks for the save,' Checky said towards Luminous.

'Awesome!' Nami squealed with excitement.

'Lumi, I'm so disappointed. You never did tell anyone how much of a parkour master you are!' Phantom pouted.

'Hey, _you_ are the one who has a way with girls. You should know that being with one changes a man,' Luminous mocked.

'Heh, it takes the lack of a man's powers to discover his true self eh?' Phantom mocked back.

'Shut it,' Luminous responded as his thoughts wandered to the girl at home. 'Poor Lania, I miss her chores…. Wonder if she's okay,' he thought.

In the meantime, Checky thought of an idea as he tried to shake off the pain from hitting the floor hard. 'Nami, if you remember where I used to study, I need you to take me there.'

'You mean, NTU*?'

'Exactly. I have some plans of my own.'

* * *

 _*NTU: Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (not sponsored)_

 _A/N: I gotta admit, writing this chapter is really, really fun! :D_

 _The fun part especially comes when I started to write about the conflicts that happened in this chapter. It's just that the thought process that went on my mind was literally a constant jumble because so many things came to my head at once, and I had to stop my brain from getting too jumbled up and actually settle down to organise my thoughts. Since the conflict revolves around at Nami's end, it may seem like a tussle to figure out what Checky could do, what Phantom and Luminous could do without their powers, and what Nami, the one WITH powers, could do, with the requirement I imposed for myself that everything has to be as close to the canon (pre-Black Heaven canon, that is) as possible._

 _For Checky, most of what he could do lies with the information that he is in charge of the mechanic branch in the resistance army. Typically, a member of the resistance unable to reveal his identity in public would have something up their sleeves, and for me I deemed that trick to be the ability of melee combat using everyday items (in this case, a kitchen knife). For Phantom, when he has lost his powers, his mastery of card-manoeuvring becomes his greatest weapon, so I was able to utilise this ability as best as logically possible. Luminous was a trickier one. Since most of what we recognise of him concern his powers and his inner conflict of elements, featuring him with the lack thereof becomes the greatest challenge. Luminous was the light cast away by the Black Mage, so most of his other non-light- or power-related abilities would come from his experience living in the countryside with Lania, and so I settled with his ability to climb various spots, as well as parkour, and mastery in handling animals._

 _Nami's powers were a different story since there's almost no background of her, so I had to crack my brain to figure out abilities that utilise time. Drawing from the AFA, I decided to make her bow-and-arrows useful too. Some observant readers may have already noticed, some, if not most, of Nami's powers are inspired from the video game Quantum Break, and that is true. Truth be told, the more I write and describe Nami and her powers, the more I am convinced that a time-themed archer class has to be a thing in MS. XD_

 _Apart from these, I had to set up a possible conflict scenario that Lotus and Orchid, with their powers as demonstrated in the canon, could set up in Singapore, a country with a very small land area. Remembering that her minions are mostly rabbits, and a lot of things about her, I thought her powers would be to turn animals into her minions, which, conveniently, makes it match Luminous's own abilities._

 _Till then, it's time to crack my head as to what the powers of the other characters should be._


	20. Chapter 19

**IN DEEP MIRE**

The parking lot in the basement was not any better when Nami and her friends arrived there. Although there were no sign of beasts in here, debris can be seen everywhere in the confines of the area, and most of the cars that were parked in there were crushed by these falling debris. Nami attempted to find her car, dearly hoping that it would still be in pristine condition.

To her relief, her car was, at its place, still unharmed. As they approached it, Nami fumbled through her pocket and, much to her dismay, realised that she had forgotten her keys whilst scrambling to get out of the apartment block. 'And going back is not really an option now, is it?' Luminous asked, to which Nami shook her head.

'I guess this calls for the good ol' method of starting a car.' Checky raised an arm at the door to the driver's seat as he resumed, 'Sorry, desperate times call for desperate measures.'

Nami, suddenly realising what Checky was about to do, yelled, 'WAIT! I'm still…'

Checky smashed the window of the door, breaking it to many pieces.

'...paying the loan….' Nami blurted out what remained of her sentence.

Checky crouched down below the dashboard and, after some tinkering, pulled out two open wires. He connected the two wires, which sparkled and sizzled. With three or so attempts, the car managed to start up.

'I think it's best I drive, Nami,' Checky said as he reinserted the wires and got up, and, seeing the half-uncertain, half-annoyed look on Nami's face, tried to reassure her, 'I'll pay your loan.'

'Yeah, _as if_ you will,' thought Nami, while they got on.

To their luck, there was little to no resistance while Checky attempted to find his way out of the parking lot among the mess. However, as they got to the exit, they found that it had been completely blocked by fallen debris. Although there were gaps that could fit an ordinary human, there were none that could fit something as big as a car. After declaring that there were no other ways to get out of the place they were in, Checky got out of the car to examine the mess, followed by the other three.

'How far is it from here to NTU?' asked Checky.

'A thirty-minute drive,' Nami replied - to Checky's disappointment - as she tried to get through the gaps among the debris outside, and the others followed. She surveyed the outside world, taking in a breath of fresh air. The alleyway they were in was completely deserted, but there were obvious wreckages here and there, as if the town they were in had been war-torn. Above their heads the flying mutants soared and circled around in the sky, with an occasional screech from them.

'We have no choice but to walk there,' announced Checky.

Though by no means concurring with Checky, the four of them started to walk towards the main street, but as they came there, Checky motioned for them to stop, before gesturing for them to hide behind the corner of a building. They peered over and looked at what lay ahead of them. In a distance were Lotus and Orchid, along with some beefy minions that, albeit with some difference, looked quite like her usual chief rabbit minions that had always accompanied Orchid. Lotus seemed to be issuing orders to some of these minions, with Orchid by his side. A few moments later, the minions headed off, while Lotus and Orchid left too with some other minions in another direction. As they went off, Orchid promptly turned around, looking straight in Nami's direction, her eyes slightly gleaming, causing them to duck behind the corner to avert her gaze. She turned back and went away, and moments later, several beasts filled the main street and started to patrol there.

'This will be an awfully long walk,' remarked Nami.

'Anything useful that you could conjure up would be….. useful, now,' Checky had had high hopes on her.

Nami tried, but failed. She was thinking that a time warp straight to their destination would be most timely, but she could not cause a time warp to happen.

'We have to figure this out,' said Checky.

'Indeed, Captain Obvious,' mused Phantom.

They walked back towards the caved-in entrance of the car park, which Nami studied for a while. Soon, she thought of something and summoned her three guests. 'Hey guys, I think I got a plan….'

* * *

Checky squeezed through the little slit between the debris covering up the car park entrance, got into Nami's car and started it. Nami took a deep breath and, at the cue of the humming engine from within, reached out a hand.

'I hope this works….' she thought to herself, and sure enough, as if time was being rewound, the pile of debris started to stir and moments later, darted upwards from where they piled up, and started reforming themselves into the structure of the car park entrance. When they stopped, the entrance seemed like there had been no destruction at all.

'Quick!' Nami called out, motioning for Checky to drive out of the car park. He did so, and after Nami and the others got into the car, drove towards the path branching out from the alleyway they were in. Moments later, they heard a loud rumble from where the entrance was. They looked back to see that the car park entrance was, yet again, caved in. At this cue, Checky drove along this path and out onto the main street, where hardly any beast remained - they had heard the loud rumble from the crumbling of the entrance and had all gone there to investigate.

Relieved at the absence of minions, Nami started directing Checky towards NTU. She picked the small roads that cars usually would hardly go through, for a considerable amount of beasts still patrolled the main routes, though they were oblivious towards the four's presence in their vicinity. Nami marvelled at how fast it took for the whole of Singapore to transform into a ghost city - they could see no people alive on their way.

Out of the blue, Phantom started speaking, 'Hey Checky, I wanna ask you a question.'

'Yeah?'

'It's…. about this bear head of yours. You know how much I wanted to get a glimpse of what's hidden under this cute mascot, and so I sought to steal it away from you so that I could possibly get a good look at your… awesome face. Well, conveniently enough I didn't have to - you took it off yourself. But still, with one question answered brings another one, or should I say a few more questions.'

To that Checky did not respond, but he cocked his ears.

'It would seem like this is not your first time in this world, yes?'

'Well of course, I mean we've already been here for a day or two.'

'You know what I mean, Checky.'

Silence.

'And this bear head of yours is most curious to me…..' Phantom touched the bear head that was on Checky's head and a few moments later, it transformed into a card that seemed like it was a part of Phantom's deck, resting atop his head. Phantom went and picked the card from Checky's head.

'Hey! Give it back now! How do you know it's able to transform?'

'Oh, let's just say that I overheard your conversation with Nami a night ago.'

Checky fell silent, while Nami urged Phantom to return it to Checky. However, Phantom did not heed and proceeded to read the card on his hand.

'Ahh, interesting. A picture of a bear mascot - first time I have seen amongst this deck. Oh, doesn't this look like your usual self, Checky. A bear mascot…. not quite in my books but as I can tell, you are hiding something from me. Now, just what is the relationship between this' - Phantom waved the card in the air - 'and this world we're in now?'

'Phantom, this is to be kept a secret. Now give it back,' Checky began to grow impatient.

'And you know exactly my job _is_ to steal secrets, right? I will hold on to this until I get what I want.'

'Alright, alright. Yes, I had been to this world before. And yes, Nami was kind enough to take me in. There, you happy now?'

'Not so fast, cutey bear. I got wind that this thing in my hand now is not so much a common thing even in the Maple World, right?'

'Oh, Phantom, the only thing this thing is good at is shapeshifting. Can you now return it to him, for my sake? He really needs his bear head back,' Nami started to chip in.

'Not until this last question: Checky, what is the deal with your dream?'

Silence.

'If it can help us get back to the Maple World, I will gladly keep your secret.'

After another silence, Checky finally spoke, 'It was Rhinne. She spoke of designated places to be if we were to cross worlds, but beyond that there is nothing else I know of, and all I know was that I came here through Time Temple, and that I forgot where I went to return. I guess Nami could see that now, that we have to go somewhere in this world to be able to return.'

'...good enough,' Phantom decided from Checky's cryptic and - to him - nonsensical reply that he would not sate his curiosity, but he got what he came for anyway. 'You know, you can have this back. A bland object is not a good treasure to steal,' he said as he tapped the card onto Checky's head, which turned instantly into a bear head encasing his head again.

* * *

'We need to get off here,' Checky said, noting the heightened security of Lotus's and Orchid's minions within the campus of his alma mater. Driving straight in could cause unwanted attention and land them into trouble. As they got on to the NTU campus, they noticed that certain building blocks were desecrated, while some others remained intact.

'School of engineering….. School of engineering…' muttered Checky as he tried to find his bearings. The others, not knowing what he was up to, could only follow him.

'What is it now, Checky?' asked Nami.

'I need to get there… if there's anything we can use to get us outta here, it's gotta be there.'

Mindful of the patrolling units in there, they kept low and tried to evade the beasts as much as possible. While doing so, Checky tried to recall the way to his destination.

'There are so many of them here!' said Nami anxiously.

'I have a feeling they know where we are going,' said Luminous.

They went from block to block, ever cautious of where there were heading, until at last Checky said, 'This is it! See there?' he said, pointing towards a building in the distance, which was still relatively unharmed, 'That's the building where the school of engineering is.'

However optimistic he might have sounded, this optimism was quickly diminished by the sheer number of beasts that were there, which greatly outnumbered those that they saw along the way here, or even at the apartment block. Checky, however, seemed to have a plan.

'We need to get into this one, then we can use the interlinking bridge to get there,' said he as he motioned for the other three to enter the building right next to them. True enough, few monsters were within that building, and they were able to avert their gaze. As they got to the bridge that Checky mentioned, they saw that a bird-beast was in the way, back-facing them.

'The other way's too far from here. We'll have to put him down,' said Checky. As they were trying to quietly approach the bird-beast, it suddenly flapped its wings, and flew off the bridge, crowing loudly away.

'What was that?' asked Nami. However, her question was soon answered as she heard the rising screeching and furious roaring around them. A loud series of thumping could be heard approaching closer and closer to them, as if a virtual thunderstorm was on its way.

'Run!' yelled Checky, and everything was thrown into chaos. They started running as soon as they heard the emergent state in which Checky yelled. It was then that they realised that the horde of beasts that were patrolling the campus were all on to them.

They managed to get indoors when a few beasts caught on to them, halting them.

'Something up your sleeve, girl?' asked Phantom.

Nami focused hard on a time-stopping spell, but it wouldn't work no matter how hard she focused. Finally, when something did come of it, all it did was to slow time down, except the four of them. Not the kind that she had expected, but at least the beasts were now slow enough that even as beasts pounced and claws swung, they were able to evade their grasp. They deemed this sufficient and continued to hurry their way.

The spell did not last, though, as time around them seemed to gradually resume its normal pace. The beasts in pursuit of them started to catch up, and they started to use their weapons to fend them off. At last, when they finally made room for themselves, Checky opened a large door, bade for them to enter, and closed it. They found themselves in a large auditorium, and, after confirming that they were no longer being pursued at the moment, collapsed to take a breather.

'I never thought it could be….. exhausting to run in this world….' Phantom said as he panted for air.

'Where are we now?' asked Luminous.

As Checky studied this place, saying, 'This is an auditorium, of….. This is it! We're at the school of engineering.'

'So now, what are we here for again?' asked Phantom.

'There should be a storage where all the raw materials and tools were stored, if we can get there, I could make some things that could get us out of this situation.'

'Where then is it?'

Checky walked to the side of the auditorium, looked out of the window on one of the side doors before pointing outwards and motioning for the others to come to him.

'Just right there. If we can just make it across without alerting them…..'

Just then, a minion walked right past the door, and turned its head towards the window, prompting them to duck behind cover. The minion looked towards their direction for a while before walking away from the door.

Suddenly, Nami seemed to be aware of something, and alerted the others.

'We need to go out from the top, now! They're coming!'

While others were still taking in her words, she already sped to the top of the auditorium, and within a few seconds the doors at the bottom swung open, with a few beasts busting in. Wasting no time, the remaining three followed Nami out of the auditorium.

They tried escaping to a place with as few beasts as possible, but to no avail - the minions were closing in on them, and before long the four of them found themselves cornered.

In a minute, they were surrounded by a horde of beasts while some beefy rabbit minions burst out to seize the four of them, restricting their movements with an iron grip and robbing them of whatever freedom they had. All the while the beasts trampled around and howled and cackled, as if they were all bloodthirsty, as a tiger minion came out and approached Nami, ready to claw her to death first.

'Hold!' someone commanded, and the beasts around them stopped what they were about to do. The four recognised this voice to be one of Lotus's. Sure enough, from the horde of beasts surrounding them came Lotus and his sister, in their commander uniforms.

'Well well well, what do we have here?' Orchid teasingly asked as she came close to study her captives. She looked from face to face at each of the four, and stopped before Nami.

'Well aren't you an interesting one,' she said coldly. Nami tried to conjure something to relieve them of this situation but she could not seem to summon her powers at that moment. In a distance, she saw Lotus holding out a hand, power brewing within it.

'No you don't! I'm not letting my sister die in front of me again,' Lotus angrily bellowed.

'You're the one _he_ seeks, clearly,' Orchid said after studying Nami a little more.

Lotus was about to direct an attack towards them when Orchid gripped onto his arm and told him not to. 'Not yet, Lotus dear,' she said.

'You never thought today would be one of your weakest moments did you?' mocked Orchid.

'Ehh, whatever. One of these days I will kill Lotus and make you suffer what I had to endure again. I killed him once, and I can do that again,' Phantom goaded.

'Oh can you now?' Lotus said as a bolt of energy from himself struck Phantom making him wince in pain. He was preparing to strike him again until he was stopped by Orchid. 'We'll save it for later, won't we, brother dearest?'

Lotus stopped, sighed, and replied, 'Yes Orchid, of course we will.'

'Now whatever shall we do to you, now that we got you here, hmm…' Orchid trailed off.

'H-how do you know we're trying to get here?' Checky felt like he had to ask.

'Oh, we know where you are going. We know where you need to go to set things to right. I take delight in watching you pathetic human beings shrivel in pain as my minions slowly torture you to death, and you best think I would do it.'

Checky took a gulp at this prospect, yet she continued, 'But it would be too easy for us, plus to do so would be to go contrary to _his_ plans right now, so you know what, Lotus and I are actually going to leave you here to your sorry asses, and carry out further actions to fulfill _his_ wish. Go on. Just go to where you wanna go. Lotus and I will be waiting for you… along with many others,' Orchid turned towards Nami and whispered, 'and we look forward to what _you_ can do.'

With that, Orchid dismissed his minions which released the four of them, and bade Lotus go. Lotus, however, approached Phantom so closely until their faces were just inches apart.

'You're lucky Orchid told me not to kill you straight away. I would if I could; my heart has been aching for revenge all these years. You don't understand how painful it was to go through what Gelimer had for me, and you best bet I'll do the same to you!'

'We will see about that,' replied Phantom with a smirk of confidence.

Lotus scowled at him for a while before turning away to his sister. 'Let's go, Orchid,' he said, before both of them vanished before their eyes.

' _His_ plan?' Nami questioned.

'Must be the Black Mage, no others,' Luminous quickly dismissed her doubt.

'No, something's odd here. There's someone else apart from him, and he is definitely the one behind their operations now. I don't think it's him. I can feel it,' Nami quickly clarified.

'Well, all's well, at least we're all still alive. Let's go to the storage now,' Checky called to them.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Back I am again! :D_

 _So, after a slew of events that just happened to the game itself, plus 'real-life commitments', I was surprised to even be able to find time to write again, for I thought it would be a longer time till this chapter gets to be released. But anyway, yay me I guess._

 _You might have noticed that my focus in the recent few chapters seemed to be focused specifically on Nami & Co. In my defence, I had to keep the plot moving and after some thoughts, I decided that by shifting the focus to them it would be easier to describe the chain of events that happened to them along the way, as compared to Soro and Ruriko. Now don't get me wrong, these two are also on the move, but I figured that Nami's scene would be more eventful than the other two._

 _Apart from that, I felt that Tear's scene is also equally important. I'd had plans to focus on Nami's and Tear's scenes, in that I want to use Nami as a representative to describe the three people's move to Korea, and, at the same time, to describe what happens to Tear, who as you have noticed is already in the correct location, in the meantime._

 _Now shifting the focus to Nami makes things easier, in that Singapore, being a small country, is a better place on which to make Nami's journey more eventful without unnecessarily dragging this part of the story too much. However, some challenges I faced include reflecting the characters of the three people already in-game, as well as thinking how the four would confront Lotus and Orchid. Now here I want you readers to bear with me, because I know for those of you who've actually followed the canon, Lotus and Orchid would be portrayed as rather pitiful characters and hence you people may actually sympathise with them. But here I hope that you'd take this lens off your eyes and portray those two as wicked people again, although I concede that I would still highlight the special and indestructible bond between the twin spirits._


End file.
